{"id":559749,"date":"2026-07-20T22:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/559749\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T22:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:48:12","slug":"parents-face-e400-monthly-cost-hike-due-to-creches-withdrawal-from-core-funding-scheme-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/559749\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents face \u20ac400 monthly cost-hike due to creches\u2019 withdrawal from Core Funding scheme \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up to 200 families in Dublin<\/a> and Meath<\/a> face substantial increases in childcare costs from September after the Fonthill Lodge group said its services in Lucan and Clonee are to be withdrawn from the Government\u2019s Core Funding scheme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Parents with children in the services who spoke to The Irish Times on condition of anonymity said the increases amounted to more than \u20ac400 per child per month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve now cancelled all plans for a holiday next year and postponed all home improvements for two years at least,\u201d one affected parent said. \u201cI\u2019ll be taking on more overtime in work, so I will see my children a lot less in order to pay for someone else to look after them while I\u2019m at work and it\u2019s breaking my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Core Funding is a substantial financial support provided by Government to childcare<\/a> providers, but it comes with administrative requirements and restrictions on fees that some contend are excessive.<\/p>\n

In a letter to parents, the group said the Government funding it receives has not kept up with increases in costs. The group said it had been left with no option but to withdraw from Core Funding so it could increase its fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has not been an easy decision,\u201d the letter said. \u201cSince Core Funding was introduced, we have fully supported its aim of increasing State investment in childcare and improving pay for the educators who care for your children. We still strongly support those goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Core Funding requires participating services to freeze their fees \u2013 which in our case means we haven\u2019t increased our fees since 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said the financing had not kept pace with cost increases and was now putting the survival of the two creches \u201cat risk\u201d. <\/p>\n

The two services cater for about 250 children between them. <\/p>\n

The letter goes on to state that wages have increased by 50 per cent in the years since fees were last increased. The cost of food has increased by 40 per cent since 2021 and electricity 62 per cent.<\/p>\n

The company pointed to the introduction of auto-enrolment and statutory sick pay as also having increased its cost base.<\/p>\n

The most recent accounts for the company \u2013 which operates two other unaffected services and employs about 90 staff \u2013 show it was profitable for the period to the end of last August. <\/p>\n

The Department of Children said the two services being withdrawn from Core Funding received a combined \u20ac743,000 under the scheme last year, up \u20ac214,000 over a three-period. The Clonee facility\u2019s funding increased by 37 per cent and Lucan\u2019s, 47 per cent, it said. <\/p>\n

It said substantial further increases are due to take effect from September this year. <\/p>\n

Despite some high-profile withdrawals, the department said the number of scheme participants was higher this July than at the same time in any previous year since its establishment.<\/p>\n

Providers\u2019 groups have continued to warn, however, of increased withdrawals due to what they argue is insufficient funding.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a large north Dublin childcare franchise has backed down on its plan to pull one of its creches out of Core Funding after it was found to have overcharged parents. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, The Irish Times reported<\/a> how some parents were owed more than \u20ac4,000 by Charlie\u2019s Childcare in Bayside, one of 11 branches of a preschool and after-school service operating across north Dublin. <\/p>\n

Charlie\u2019s Childcare said it faced having to pay back more than \u20ac116,000, owed to 37 parents, after the department pointed out it had overcharged them by \u20ac245 a month. <\/p>\n

The creche had told parents twice this year that it was going to have to pull out of Core Funding and increase its fees because of the cost of the refunds, which it blamed on a family who had complained about being overcharged. <\/p>\n

On Monday, however, the creche wrote to parents to confirm that it was not now pulling out of the State funding scheme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up to 200 families in Dublin and Meath face substantial increases in childcare costs from September after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9687,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-559749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-childcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559749","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=559749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}