Rising insurance costs hit local childcare providers hard

One local childcare provider has been forced to stump up an extra €2,000 for insurance costs this year.

Marion Mulkearn Colgan, who runs Right Start Montessori in Corramore, Kiltoom, was one of a group who met with Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone recently to discuss the “huge staffing crisis within the sector” which has been exacerbated by the insurance hikes, the burden of paperwork and regulation for small facilities and retention of staff.
The meeting came as local childcare providers and staff prepare to protest in Dublin on February 5 next over a “worsening crisis” in the sector.
The demonstration is organised by the Early Years Alliance, a group which brings together organisations representing staff, providers and parents, who are demanding a sustainable solution to the worsening childcare crisis in Dublin on Wednesday, February 5 which will see many local businesses close or partially close on the day to attend.
Federation of Early Childhood Providers Chairperson, Elaine Dunne, said: “We are calling on all those concerned by the worsening childcare crisis to join us on Wednesday, February 5 to say enough is enough. We are educators and need to be paid accordingly. 
“The reason the insurance hike in the sector has hit us so hard, is because we are paid so little in the first place. The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme grant pays us €4.60 an hour and we only get paid for three hours a day. Sustainability is a real issue for providers”.
SIPTU's Pat McCabe said in the last quarter of the year that the sector faced huge challenges in terms of re-registration and fire certification, but the straw that broke the camel's back for most was the withdrawal of one of the main providers of insurance, something that saw facilities trying to find alternative cover up to the last minute, and paying “double or treble their previous premium” as a result.
This “worsening crisis in the Early Years sector” needs the government to come up with a more “sustainable funding model” for the future to allow for an improvement in pay and conditions, he continued, adding that the union is calling or the introduction of the Living Wage of €12.30 per hour in 2020 as the minimum first step towards professional pay scales. 
Marion Mulkearn Colgan, who set up her business 13 years ago after working in banking, echoed that call on the government to increase fees paid saying that they “lowered their prices and increased their paperwork” with the introduction of the ECCE scheme. 
Her insurance costs rose by €2,000 this year following the withdrawal of her original provider, and it would actually be €1,500 more but for the fact she is part of the Early Childhood Ireland group, which reduced the price on a group basis. That is just one of the major issues for the sector alongside the struggle to pay decent wages for highly qualified staff, retention of employees and increasing regulation which sees them subject to random inspections by five separate bodies. 
She is hopeful parents will support their protest which may mean a partial closure of her business on February 5.