{"id":565558,"date":"2026-07-24T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/565558\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:24:09","slug":"first-ever-review-of-childcare-fees-to-target-creches-overcharging-parents-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/565558\/","title":{"rendered":"First ever review of childcare fees to target creches overcharging parents \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first ever review of childcare<\/a> providers\u2019 fees is to be conducted targeting creches that are overcharging parents<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Every local authority in the country will later this year compare fees charged by creches with the amounts parents were billed five years ago. The initiative aims to identify those childcare providers in breach of an agreement to freeze fees at 2021 levels in exchange for increased Government funding. <\/p>\n

The review is being carried out by local authority officials at the behest of the Department of Children<\/a> amid concerns that State funding of creches is not being properly monitored.<\/p>\n

The review will start in August in advance of the new year of core funding in September.<\/p>\n

The State will actively monitor childcare fees for the first time. Previously, the burden to report creches that were overcharging fell to parents. <\/p>\n

In many cases, parents who suspect overcharging can be reluctant to complain for fear of losing their childcare place.<\/p>\n

The heavily subsidised childcare sector received more than \u20ac1.5 billion in public funding this year. From September, the State will spend \u20ac480 million on the core funding scheme. <\/p>\n

Under this scheme, which is about to enter its fifth year, childcare providers were promised more Government funding in exchange for a promise to freeze their fees at 2021 levels. <\/p>\n

Since 2024, parents who believed they were being overcharged have been able to complain to their local city and county childcare committees. These committees, which oversee childcare policy at local level, can carry out a review on childcare providers suspected of breaching the fee cap. <\/p>\n

The sanctions for those in breach of their core funding agreement include refunds to affected parents and potentially having to repay the Government for public funding received. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Parents face \u20ac400 monthly cost-hike due to creches\u2019 withdrawal from Core Funding schemeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Last week, The Irish Times reported that parents attending the Bayside branch of a large north Dublin creche franchise had been overcharged by thousands of euro a year. <\/p>\n

Some parents were owed more than \u20ac4,000 by Charlie\u2019s Childcare in Bayside, one of 11 branches of a preschool and afterschool service operating across north Dublin. A fee review found it had overcharged some parents by \u20ac245 a month. <\/p>\n

The fee review was initiated only after one family complained, despite the creche\u2019s fees being visible to Fingal County Council<\/a>\u2019s childcare committee. <\/p>\n

The creche, which said it owed \u20ac116,000 to 37 parents, sought to blame the family who had complained about its fees and insisted it had not overcharged parents. <\/p>\n

The Department of Children told The Irish Times that childcare committees across local authorities would be more actively monitoring the fees charged by childcare providers to parents. <\/p>\n

\u201cCity and county childcare committees are going to review all Core Funding Partner Service 2026\/2027 fee policies against 2021 fees charged to check they are in line with Core Funding agreements,\u201d a spokeswoman for the department said, referring to the Government\u2019s funding programme for creches.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin creche raising fees after being ordered to refund more than \u20ac100,000 to parentsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another important part of the work that needs to be done in relation to the Programme for Government commitment to reduce childcare costs to a maximum of \u20ac200 per child per month.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to figures from the department, since 2024 57 complaints have been made about creches overcharging parents. By June, 27 creche providers were found to be in breach of core funding rules for fees. <\/p>\n

All of these childcare providers were told to sign a declaration promising to refund parents. If a refund is not offered, the department may place their public funding on hold. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first ever review of childcare providers\u2019 fees is to be conducted targeting creches that are overcharging parents.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,9687,195462,12845,61,60,11760],"class_list":["post-565558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-childcare","tag-department-of-children-disability-and-equality","tag-fingal-county-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-parents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565558","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=565558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}