Childcare and Early Years

The Social Democrats have a clear goal to establish a public model of early childhood education and care (ECEC), and a pathway to achieve it.

Overseen by a National Childcare Agency, this would have the triple benefit of guaranteeing quality early years education and care for children, affordability for parents, and appropriate compensation and benefits for workers in the early years sector. Investing more money in the sector as it is currently structured will not achieve our social goals in full.

Despite some recent improvements, childcare remains a huge expense for many families and yet a majority of staff within the sector earn below the Living Wage, with high staff turnover undermining the quality of the service being delivered. There is still a clear need to increase the direct state funding to the childcare/early years sector to help improve staff pay and working conditions, and to increase affordability for parents.

Our Childcare and Early Years Priorities

• Begin building a public model of early childhood education and care, overseen by a National Childcare Agency
• Ensure affordability for parents by capping fees at €250 per child per month
• Achieve a highly skilled and fairly remunerated ECEC workforce
• Use part of the considerable budget surpluses projected over the coming years to purchase, on a voluntary basis, already-operational childcare settings as part of building a base level of public capacity in the sector
• Build additional early years settings in the areas most in need
• Focus on using ECEC funding to disrupt the cycle of poverty and exclusion which exists in parts of Ireland

Find Out More

You can read more about our policies and plans in our Childcare and Early Years policy document, linked below.