Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I have been contacted by parents of children who attend two different crèches in my constituency, namely, Discoveries Crèche and Montessori School in Firhouse and Chuckleberries Montessori and Crèche in Ballycullen. In both cases, these crèches are either threatening or planning to withdraw from core funding and massively hike their fees. An email from one family stated that their total fee would go up from €1,200 per month to €1,851. Another said their household had two incomes which made up €100,000 between them, and yet they were still struggling to pay for crèche fees on top of everything else. The likelihood in this case is that the mother would not be able to return to work. This is an absolute disaster. It is a product of the failed privatised system that has been created by the State and it does not work for anybody apart from the big crèche operators who are making massive profits. It is does not work for the workers on low pay, for the parents who are faced with a second mortgage, or for many small operators. What will the Government do immediately when faced with the prospect of crèches withdrawing from core funding and hiking up their fees in an unaffordable way? Does the Government accept that what we need is a public, not-for-profit, universal, free childcare service?

See this speech in context