{"id":485794,"date":"2026-06-06T07:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485794\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:23:08","slug":"parents-taking-fake-sick-days-as-creches-close-at-short-notice-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/485794\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents taking \u2018fake sick days\u2019 as creches close at short notice \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working parents<\/a> are being forced to find alternative childcare<\/a> or take annual leave or \u201cfake sick days\u201d as a result of rooms in creches in Dublin, Kildare and Meath having to close at short notice.<\/p>\n

Tigers Childcare chief executive Karen Clince said the business was recently forced to close rooms in a small number of its 30-plus creches due to staffing issues, which were being exacerbated by delayed Garda<\/a> vetting applications. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe fully understand that any disruption to childcare arrangements can be stressful and frustrating for children and families, particularly where parents are balancing work<\/a> and family commitments,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not running at full capacity as a business because we can\u2019t hire.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chain\u2019s creches in Ballybrack and Leopardstown in south Dublin, Kilcock in Co Kildare, and Enfield in Co Meath are among those that had to close rooms in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

In April, the toddler room in Ballybrack shut for a full week. One woman whose child attends the creche lamented having to find alternative childcare or take \u201cfake sick days\u201d from work several times in recent weeks because of the closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s literally a message at 3pm to tell me whether or not [my child] has a place in the creche tomorrow,\u201d the woman said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDay to day we don\u2019t know who is going to be minding [the child] or if the service will be open.\u201d<\/p>\n

A parent whose child attends the Leopardstown creche said they and their partner have had to alternate taking days off work due to the closures. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe turnover of the staff is very high, which is not good for the kids,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n

Parents were refunded for the days their children were not able to attend the creche. <\/p>\n

The Ballybrack facility was previously run by Chatterbox Childcare, but Tigers Childcare took it over last September. Tigers was acquired by UK group Kids Planet Day Nurseries<\/a> last month in a reported multi-million euro deal. <\/p>\n

A former staff member at the Ballybrack creche said she and her colleagues would try \u201cto make a plan for the whole week, but people call in sick, the agency [workers] call in sick, so sometimes it does happen day by day\u201d.<\/p>\n

The woman said employees found out at the same time as parents if a certain room would be closed and that they were moving to another room to fill a gap. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was hard for us as well,\u201d she said. \u201cIf the room is closed, it unsettles the child\u2019s routine, and then if the room is closed for more than a day, then we have to resettle the child back in when they come in … Being moved to another room that maybe we haven\u2019t worked in before is stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman, who has since secured a role in a different creche, called on the Government to do more to support the \u201cessential\u201d work childcare workers do.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Childcare fees to be capped at \u20ac183.70 per week for 45 hours of careOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can\u2019t work then other people can\u2019t work because they don\u2019t have any childcare,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Clince, who is also chair of Childhood Services Ireland, a branch of employers\u2019 lobby Ibec representing childcare providers, said she planned to introduce a 5 per cent pay increase for her staff. She said many workers were leaving the sector because pay and conditions were \u201cso poor\u201d. <\/p>\n

Those who remain are facing burnout, she said, resulting in \u201creally high\u201d rates of illness leave which \u201cexacerbates the problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

Clince said the Garda vetting process previously took around 10 days, but can now take up to six weeks. This extended timeline is creating \u201creal operational pressure for providers trying to maintain staffing ratios and safeguarding standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

She described the hiring situation as a \u201cperpetual circus\u201d that was not good for children, staff or parents. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I wake up, I have to do what\u2019s best for the children,\u201d she said. \u201cIf there\u2019s not enough staff there that know what they\u2019re doing, that are confident with those children, I have to turn around to tell the truth to the parents, and that might mean the parents go somewhere else, and I have to live by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of Tigers Childcare\u2019s creches are part of the Government\u2019s core funding model, but Clince said she was considering leaving the scheme. <\/p>\n

Core funding was introduced by the Government in 2022 to assist childcare providers with operating costs. In return for signing up to the model, operators had to commit to a fee freeze<\/a>. Many centres have withdrawn from the scheme, blaming rising costs<\/a> and more are expected to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Elaine Dunne, chair of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, said the issues faced by Tigers were not isolated. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s across the board; there\u2019s no staff,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Dunne said the funding many providers receive had become \u201cstagnant\u201d at a time when their costs were rising.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them went into core funding, were in historical fee freezes, and that has never been addressed. So you\u2019re already running at a loss when you go into core funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Children said it \u201cacknowledged that many early learning and childcare services report recruitment and retention challenges\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are high levels of turnover of staff mainly due to low pay and conditions in the sector. Although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set wages or conditions,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, last year the Government provided \u20ac45 million in ring-fenced core funding provided to support services in meeting the increased cost of minimum pay rates in the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunne said providers \u201cappreciate the \u20ac45 million\u201d but it should be \u201cat least another \u20ac20 million or \u20ac30 million on top of that, and should go up every year, so that we can give a decent pay increase\u201d.<\/p>\n

In relation to Garda vetting, the department said it \u201crecognises the challenges\u201d for providers due to increased processing times. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, safeguarding children and ensuring their safety is a priority and appropriate vetting must be in place for anyone working directly with children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Working parents are being forced to find alternative childcare or take annual leave or \u201cfake sick days\u201d as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,9687,195462,1346,61,60,193455],"class_list":["post-485794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-childcare","tag-department-of-children-disability-and-equality","tag-garda-siochana","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tigers-childcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485794","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=485794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}