{"id":481895,"date":"2026-06-04T01:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/481895\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:59:12","slug":"childcare-fees-to-be-capped-at-e183-70-per-week-for-45-hours-of-care-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/481895\/","title":{"rendered":"Childcare fees to be capped at \u20ac183.70 per week for 45 hours of care \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most parents who use childcare will benefit from a new maximum cap on fees of \u20ac183.70 per week for 45 hours, the Minister for Children has said. <\/p>\n

Norma Foley<\/a> on Wednesday announced the new maximum fee caps, which had been flagged at the time of Budget 2026. <\/p>\n

A parent who sends their child for 45 hours of childcare a week, which translates to care between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday, will see their costs drop from a maximum of \u20ac198 per week to \u20ac183.70 from September. <\/p>\n

But even under the most generous fee caps, parents will still be paying almost the same amount in childcare a week that the Government promised they would pay a month. <\/p>\n

Foley said she hoped to make progress towards the promised \u20ac200 a month figure in Budget 2027. It is expected it will take the Government the duration of its term, which runs to 2029, to deliver what was a key election pledge. <\/p>\n

At the moment, the Department of Children<\/a> estimates that about 25 per cent of parents are paying \u20ac200 or less a month for childcare. <\/p>\n

Parents whose children attend childcare for more than 50 hours a week, a minimum of a 7am drop-off and a 6pm pickup, will pay a maximum weekly fee of \u20ac239.70 under the revised plan. <\/p>\n

Foley said 45 to 50 hours a week is the \u201cmost common\u201d amount of childcare that parents avail of. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the one that is most consistently used by parents,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Foley also said from September, childcare providers will be required to share more data with the Government about the fees they charge to parents. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time, throughout the month of September, providers are being asked to return what their fees are, what parents are being asked to pay, and what ultimately they have to pay on the basis of what they receive from the national child care subsidy,\u201d Foley said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have very clear data across the entire country as regards what services parents are availing of. The real challenge is that some parents are availing services that are open 30 hours, 40 hours, some of them are half-day, some of them are full day, it\u2019s quite a complicated process,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for the first time in the month of September, we have the absolute detail of what it involves for parents and what they\u2019re ultimately paying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister for Children Norma Foley. Photograph: Sam Boal\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Special needs assistant workforce development plan to be brought to CabinetOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This year, the Government will spend \u20ac480 million in core funding for childcare services, and \u20ac45 million of this will be specifically ring-fenced for improved pay for those working in the early years sector.<\/p>\n

Exactly how that \u20ac45 million is spent will be determined by the Early Years Service Joint Labour Committee (JLC), an independent body that negotiates pay and conditions for early years workers. <\/p>\n

Foley said while she \u201crespects\u201d the JLC process, which is entirely independent from Government, she expressed some frustration that the process had not started sooner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould I like to see that process begin earlier? I absolutely would. I think it\u2019s always beneficial the earlier it begins,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most parents who use childcare will benefit from a new maximum cap on fees of \u20ac183.70 per week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9687,195462,42,43,2988,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-481895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-childcare","tag-department-of-children-disability-and-equality","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-norma-foley","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}