A spokesman for the Minister for Children says the Government is “committed to substantially reducing the cost of childcare for parents.”

This comes after it was revealed that some Dublin parents are paying up to 60 percent more in creche fees than in other parts of the country. According to the latest figures on the cost of childcare, parents who send their children to creche in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, pay average creche fees of €244.08 per child, per week, for full-time childcare, and overall across the capital, parents are paying an average of €221.57 per week. These are high figures compared to elsewhere in the country, with parents in Carlow, for instance, paying an average of €152.08 per week, per child. Information provided to the Dáil by the Green Party Minister shows that nationwide, including Dublin, the average weekly cost of a child in full-time childcare is €186.84 or just under €750 per month.

Overall, figures show that parents who send their children to creche in Dublin pay an average of €46 more per week than parents elsewhere in the country.

October budget hopes

The figures come amid a widespread expectation that October’s budget will include measures to help families with the cost of childcare.

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman’s spokesman said he is to seek investment in the National Childcare Scheme (NCS) aimed at “substantially” reducing fees for all parents.

Mr O’Gorman announced plans at the time of Budget 2022 to ask childcare providers to freeze creche fees at last September’s levels in return for a new core funding scheme designed to improve terms and conditions in the sector.

Support is offered to parents through the NCS and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) schemes but there have been growing calls from Government and Opposition politicians to provide more help with the cost of sending a child to creche.

Speaking to the Irish Times, Fine Gael TD for Dún Laoghaire, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, says parents are being “crucified” by costs amounting to a second mortgage and that nowhere was that more evident than in her constituency

“It is clear that the substantial additional funding provided by the government through a range of childcare schemes in the past three years is not having enough impact on extremely high prices,” she said.

The Fine Gael TD said funding to date had been “largely going to improve salaries and quality, which is important”.

“But we now urgently need measures that more directly target the cost to parents.”

She added: “Freezing fees won’t be enough when costs are that high already.”