A “huge” number of parents will see no reduction in their childcare costs after the budget, a woman-centred analysis of Tuesday’s announcements finds.
The National Women’s Council of Ireland, in its feminist analysis of Budget 2027 published on Friday, said tax reforms announced on Tuesday would benefit far more men than women, while the allocation for domestic violence services was “disappointing”.
“In summary: is this a worker’s budget? It’s not for women workers,” the council said.
It welcomed the extension in eligibility for free contraception to women aged up to 36, but criticised the lack of further investment in hormone replacement therapy and in publicly funded fertility treatment.
Deficits in the affordability and availability of childcare “remain the single biggest barrier to women’s equal participation in Irish society”, the analysis found. “And many early years educators continue to be underpaid and undervalued.”
The budget contained a commitment that childcare fees would be capped at €550 a month for children in care for 45 hours a week, up to senior infants level, and in providers under the Department of Children’s core funding scheme.
“Children in early years education beyond these hours (such as those in childcare from approx 8am-6pm) avail of more than this 45-hour week, and thus, may still pay far above €550,” the analysis said.
The bulk of savings will be to parents of babies, toddlers and preschool age.
“Junior and senior infants typically have their own after-school care, which is significantly less than 45 hours. Access, capacity, regional availability gaps, as well as staff recruitment and retention issues, remain unaddressed by Budget 2027.”
The council reiterated its call for “a detailed plan of action for transitioning to a public system of childcare, including timelines, funding allocations, planning reforms, and governance structures”.
Social protection increases of €10 a week “are not in keeping with inflation rates … people in Ireland living on lower incomes, who are reliant on social transfers to maintain income adequacy, will see little impact from these reforms”.
Lone parents, the vast majority of whom are mothers, “are also the demographic at the most acute risk of poverty and deprivation in Ireland”.
Echoing others in calling for welfare rates to be benchmarked against inflation, the council said: “Without a commitment to benchmarking and indexation, social protection payments will continue to fall behind, leaving women, including disabled women, without an adequate and secure income.”
Women, particularly those on low incomes, are especially dependent on access to quality public services – including childcare, transport, healthcare and housing.
More than half of homeless families are headed by lone parents.
“All housing policy and investment should be gender-sensitive, to ensure that they are tackling gender and social inequalities rather than exacerbating or maintaining them,” the council said.