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22nd August 2024
11:05am BST
Gone are the days when one parent could remain at home for the early years of their kids’ lives with most households needing income from both parents to survive.
The monthly costs are constantly racking up, with Creche and Montessori bills reaching the point where it is ‘crippling’ young families.
The National Women’s Council is calling on the Irish government to make changes and are insisting that the only “common sense solution to the childcare crisis currently engulfing the country” is to set up a state-run childcare system.
This comes after the council was made aware of some private childcare providers substantially increasing their fees after backing out of the government-backed Core Funding Scheme.
With the budget nearing, the NWC is encouraging the government to launch a pilot scheme to take control of the skyrocketing costs over the next few years.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Ciara Kelly spoke of how young families are being “crippled with the cost of childcare”.
“It is largely young women who take time out of their careers to mind their kids,” she said.
“There isn't enough of a difference between what they earn and what they would pay in childcare, so going to work doesn't have any benefit to them and it is a real problem.”
She explained that this issue does not include women who opt to remain at home after having a baby, but that those who want - or need - to return to the workforce are finding it so difficult.
“So women's careers are affected, it increases the gender pay gap and it also really damages women's pensions – we hardly ever remember the fact that women's pensions are affected by what work they undertook during the course of their careers.
“So, it’s an enormous problem.”
The NWC has said that the childcare crisis has growing in recent years, even though the State has doubled its investment in the current system.
The council is calling on the Government to turn its focus to a fully State-run system as soon as possible.
