Labour Councillor, Angela Feeney has been an activist on the issue of childcare for many years now and has engaged with parents and providers to raise the issue at multiple levels within the Council and nationally, from both planning to community perspectives. Feeney says that the reality nowadays is that both parents need to work in order to be able to afford a mortgage, it is a crucial issue for parents and this is why she recently conducted a survey on the issue. The population of Kildare has grown by 11% to 247,774 since 2016. Maynooth, the fastest growing large town in the country has seen a population increase of 18.3% from 14,585 in 2016 to 17,259 in 2022.Celbridge (20,601), Leixlip (16,773), Kilcock (8,674), Clane (8,152) and Maynooth have a combined population of over 70,000. Feeney says that with further growth planned this issue will only get worse, if not seriously addressed. When people move into an area they expect to be able to avail of basic services such as childcare, school places and medical services.
Survey Findings
- 90% of participants said they have had difficulty in securing childcare
- 50% of the survey participants said that they or their partner had to take leave from work or give up work because they could not access childcare services.
- Participants are on childcare waiting lists for a minimum of two years
- Parents need to travel to childcare facilities as far as City West.
- Others mention that they are on reduced hours and have delayed returning to work due to lack of childcare placement.
- 65% said they rely on friends or family members to help out.
Feeney believes that the lack of access to trained childcare providers has a negative effect on the economy; one survey participant is a pharmacist, an industry that is suffering from a lack of qualified staff but she cannot work despite wanting to. She says that a common response to her survey was that parents are delaying going back to work because of the lack of availability and cost of childcare. Another participant said that she moved from the US 4 years ago to Maynooth with no family or friends in the area and she was forced to decline a job offer at Maynooth University because she could not source any childcare.
Why are we in this situation?
Cllr. Feeney believes that there is a combination of factors at play. Many families move into new developments where a childcare facility has formed part of the planning application but is rarely if ever delivered. Childcare providers cannot find additional premises at an affordable price. Many providers are full, years in advance and equally some providers find it almost impossible to set up or expand their service.In the rare cases where a childcare facility is built in a new development, the cost of bringing an empty shell of a building to the required regulatory standards is outside the realm of affordability for the smaller local providers. Some of the childcare settings do not partake in any of the National Childcare schemes so those parents do not receive any subsidy. The reasons given for not being in the scheme is that smaller crèche with just six employees do not have the staffing power needed to administer the schemes.
A Way Forward
Cllr. Feeney believes that the current model of childcare is not working for parents and that a publicly funded affordable childcare model is needed. This would be transformative for gender equality and at the same time would ensure decent pay and conditions for childcare workers. Having worked in education all her life, Cllr Feeney feels very strongly about the issue. She says that childcare should be seen as an integral part of a State-funded education system. We take for granted that the state has a responsibility to educate our children through primary and second-level. There is no good reason to abdicate this duty during a child’s earliest and most impressionable years. There is a lot more to do to bring our care system in Ireland up to scratch. Cllr Feeney said that she worked in France and has seen first hand how in every town and village, parents have access to municipal crèches. Caring and childcare responsibilities still fall predominantly on women in Ireland, which limits women’s employment opportunities.
A cost effective, accessible childcare model would give women the chance and the choice to work; investment in State-led, universal, high-quality childcare is needed now. While we await this much needed change Cllr Feeney wants to see what we can do locally and at county level to address the issue. Please email Cllr Feeney if you are interested in joining the Childcare Action North Kildare (CANKare) action group. afeeney@kildarecoco.ie