SF’s childcare proposals don’t add up for working families

Working families around Ireland will be disappointed to see that Sinn Fein’s childcare proposals do not go further to reduce the onerous cost of childcare for people with young children.

Their less than ambitious proposals will cap fees for parents at €4.50 an hour.  In contrast, Labour will reduce childcare costs for parents to €2 an hour by 2021.

Sinn Fein’s €4.50 cap is less than the combined €4.75 per hour providers will receive under Labour (€4.25 parent contribution in year one, plus 50c contribution from the state) and they propose to reduce costs for parents by just 75c an hour over the next five years.

In addition, these proposals only appear to help those whose children attend childcare centres – it isn’t clear, what if anything, Sinn Fein’s proposals would do for the many parents who choose to have their children cared for by child-minders.

The pick-and-mix costings approach of this policy highlights yet again the tenuous grip that Sinn Fein has on economics.

Labour’s childcare policy, like all of our policies, is fully costed and will deliver real progress for low and middle income working families.