Whitmore Raises Childcare Woes In Dáil

Ross never sleeps…

atest press release from Jennifer Whitmore TD, issued on Thursday, September 19th 2024…

Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore spoke extensively about the challenges parents in her constituency are experiencing while trying to access childcare, during a debate in the Dáil on Wednesday evening.

Fees amounting to a second mortgage, children’s names being put on waiting lists the same week they were born, staff shortages and afterschool closures, were among some of the issues that Deputy Whitmore touched upon as she again called for the introduction of a public childcare service.

“Every week without fail I am contacted by families across Wicklow who are struggling in relation to childcare. I’ve spoken to parents in Blessington and Wicklow Town facing uncertainty in relation to fee increases and parents in Greystones and Bray who haven’t been able to get their young children into creches despite registering them the week they were born,” commented Deputy Whitmore.

“Parents are under huge strain to find childcare that is both available and affordable and the current private childcare model is not working. It’s not working for parents and it’s not working for childcare providers or Early Years Professionals,” explained Ms Whitmore, who is the Social Democrats spokesperson for Children.

“According to SIPTU’s recent Early Years Professionals survey there are 30k children on waiting lists for a creche place, and 30% of managers are reporting issues with recruitment and retention of staff.

“This is leading to closures of rooms and services within childcare settings, which we are seeing across Wicklow,” explained Deputy Whitmore.

“We need a public childcare model in State ownership that offers families accessible and affordable childcare. We need a childcare model that gives staff security and dignity in their wages and a system that is not subject to annual changes in funding levels and price increases,” continued Deputy Whitmore.

“Speaking to parents about their experiences of getting childcare, the stress of trying to find places and pay for them, the stress of getting children there and making sure they have aftercare, brings me right back to that sick feeling that just sits in your stomach when you know you have to organise this for you own family and, if you do not, the repercussions of it. For some parents, usually mothers, this means they cannot work or that they must consider whether they can afford to go back to work, if they want to. I feel like we are having the same conversations about childcare in Ireland now that we would have been having ten or 15 years ago,” said Ms Whitmore.

“If we continue to use sticking plasters in the form of public money to keep a private system as the model, we will continue to fail. The only way we will get this right is to have a fully public model of childcare that parents can avail of. It is time that parents in Ireland had the same service as parents all over Europe have.

“There is no reason they deserve less,” concluded Deputy Whitmore.