The Affordable Childcare Scheme was announced by the Irish Government in late 2016, promising some help with childcare costs to all parents, with more to low-income families.
While Early Childhood Ireland, as the leading early years representative body, had welcomed the scheme as an important first step, we also had serious misgivings. These included a concern about the underlying flawed cost model on which it was built, as well as a failure to deal with an on-going staffing crisis in the early years sector, illustrated by the findings of a members’ survey, which we carried out in March.
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