Sinn Féin puts forward proposals to improve childcare and make it affordable.
Speaking following the launch of Sinn Féin‘s Child Care Policy Laois/South Kildare TD Brian Stanley said:
We want to give children the best start in life. By improving the quality of early childhood education to promote positive experiences and learning outcomes, we can also develop a system that is responsive to the needs of both child and parents. The cost of childcare is placing an enormous burden on parents and in many cases is cancelling out the benefits of mothers returning to work.We want to increase employment and improve qualification levels in the childcare sector itself.
Public spending on this lags behind other OECD countries. While successive Governments have attempted to tackle child care costs the recession resulted in payments for children being slashed, such as child benefit. The 2016 budget saw the Government pressured into addressing some of the concerns Sinn Féin have outlined over the years – but this approach remains fragmented and undertaken without full consultation with parents and the industry. To tackle this problem and deliver a more affordable and improved service we must rebalance Government resources towards child development.
Some of our proposals to improve childcare include :
Moving to set maximum fees for childcare costs. Increasing the capitation grants for the free pre-school year by €5 a week and provide an additional 1,000 Special Needs Assistants in Early Childhood Care and Education.
Assist the progression of the existing workers to level 7 and 8 qualifications and extend the learner fund by €80 million over five years and aim for a 60% degree led workforce by 2025. We would implement rights and standards for childcare workers and carry out a review within a year of salary scales.
To conclude Deputy Stanley said
“Unlike Labour’s use of childcare as an election tool, we will not make promises that we cannot keep. When we questioned the Department of Public Expenditure,
they informed us that they were unable to cost the €2 per hour plan that Joan Burton and the Labour Party seemed to manufacture.
“Sinn Féin‘s commitments are costed and affordable. We will keep the promises we make if we are given a mandate to do so.”
