Act before childcare crisis becomes a catastrophe – Gilmartin

Independent Candidate in the Manorhamilton LEA James Gilmartin has further highlighted his concerns on how government policies towards the provision of nursing homes and childcare are having disastrous effects in local communities here North Leitrim. It has led to the closure of smaller services in these sectors that are often family run and community based. Meanwhile big multinational providers are gaining a larger and larger slice of the market and often relocating the services
to larger towns and cities.

“The levels of bureaucracy and the lack of funding are causing small and medium sized childcare services to close,” Mr Gilmartin indicated. “This has two outcomes – the loss of childcare places locally with parents scrambling to find a childcare place in their areas and the loss of small businesses and jobs locally.

“In the case of childcare services, providers were offered core funding by the Department of Children in 2022 on condition that they freeze their fees,” Mr Gilmartin explained, “they duly did, with many leaving their fees at pre-Covid levels but, in the meantime, the cost of living shot through the roof. However, if these services want to keep the core funding, they cannot increase their fees. Meanwhile, new entrants to the market, among them large multinational providers backed byinvestment funds, are not only able to access core funding but they can charge higher fees which is a further deterrent to any new small scale providers starting outin the area”

Mr Gilmartin also outlined how the advent of core funding has brought with it a level of bureaucracy that is totally excessive for small providers. “For instance, there is a requirement that a separate set of accounts is prepared for the Department of Children and Pobal to be signed by a chartered accountant. The Department and Pobal will not accept the normal accounts prepared for Revenue. This is bureaucratic madness, two sets of accounts for very small businesses catering for perhaps 10 to 15 children. To add to the burden, the Revenue accounts cover the period December to December while the set signed off by a chartered accountant as demanded by the Department of Children and Pobal has to cover the period September to August. There is massive paperwork involved in preparing these, not to mention the huge cost of paying a chartered accountant. This is definitely driving businesses to the brink and closing some of them down” Mr Gilmartin added.

To deal with this he is calling on the Government to level the playing pitch for smaller and medium sized childcare providers.One step in the right direction would be increase the rate of Early Childhood Care and Education funding from €69 per child to €100 and drop the bureaucratic and expensive madness of requiring two separate sets of accounts. “My experience on the doorsteps is that families with young children in the North Leitrim area are in extremely difficult circumstances with regards to childcare. The Government needs to act and to act swiftly to address the concerns of these families to prevent this childcare crisis from becoming a catastrophe” Mr Gilmartin concluded.