Creche fees. How much are you paying?

afatbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120005969#Comment_120005969

Your paying for the place not the childcare.

If your child was sick 10 days out of 30 and you didn't pay it she could go out and get someone who would pay them the 30 days instead of your 20. Its a pain in the arse but thats the way you got to look at it.

To keep on topic, I live in the Midlands in the UK, 2 year old goes to Nursery 4 half days a week, Part of a private school so great facilities like an indoor swimming pool which they take once they hit 3 and loads of space outside. Lunch and snacks included for £33 a half day or about £500 a month. UK gov pays 20% of it so about £400 a month. They work to term times so we book our place for term times and if we want to take her out while school holidays are on we don't have to pay. That's saved us quite a bit which is amazing. Before we used to pay while we were on holiday or over Christmas when we used a childminder but now don't have to.

I think they run the Nursery at a loss to get the kids into the private primary school. Other places cost more but were full!

Edited to add, UK Gov bringing in free hours for 2 year olds but we will miss it as she will be 3 by when they want to bring it in, At 3 she will get 30 free hours during term times so over the year our bill will be about £200 a month.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468482#Comment_120468482

It’s so disappointing to be honest.

I’ve heard politicians going on about how they are lowering the cost of childcare but they absolutely are not.

I don’t know from the pov of the childcare provider but they seem to be creating more work for them.

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468642#Comment_120468642

My wife is a manager in a non chain crèche and the extra work is crushing them. It’s a mess.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467066#Comment_120467066

See my post above yours with prices we are paying in South Dublin also, which is in line (in fact yours is a bit cheaper). Our 2 year old is €1350 - NCS.

NCS funding is simply €1.40 per hour, up to 45 hours p/w. So if they are in fulltime, it maxs out at €63 per week or about €270 per month.

We use 2 different creches, one medium chain (5 or so premises), one small (2 premises), and both bemoan NCS system on a weekly basis. And as a parent it's a total pain in the arse having to make sure you hit the declared hours regularly so as to maintain funding.

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120468695#Comment_120468695

That hours thing is ridiculous, it effectively punishes the parents that can collect their children a little bit early.

Sarn

Thankfully our crèche hasn’t followed up on the NCS hours with us since they were submitted last year.

Last year we were paying just over €2k a month for two. With the increase in NCS funding it dropped to just over €1700 which has been some help.

We pay €1k after NCS for our 2 year old and that’s on a corporate rate!

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470411#Comment_120470411

Yea it's dumb.

We used to send our kids in for a 4 day week, but you lose out significantly when you do that now, with the new system it's just easier to pay for a full 5 days.

The creche also now has to bill us weekly now, so the amount you pay every month is different depending on how many weeks there were in that month. Which means payment is now manual (and undoubtedly people forget so there's chasing up etc etc). The creche had to do up a payment schedule for all kids at the start of the year as obviously the amount you pay will vary on the hours.

The whole thing wasn't thought through, or else they thought all creches have an entire team of administrators to take care of this stuff.

salmocab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120470685#Comment_120470685

My wife is absolutely crushed by the work load in it, there is so much unnecessary parts that could easily have been streamlined. The crèches are having to do a pile of extra work and get next to nothing extra out of it. The bigger chains have admin staff but the small chains and standalone crèches must really be feeling the pain. They are being pushed into a lot of things and feel it’s moving toward the state taking over childcare but without the hassle of running childcare. I get the impression her boss is just about done with the whole business.

cant26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120467066#Comment_120467066

We would have always paid if the kids were sick but wouldn't pay if the childminder was sick. Same with holidays. If we were away we would pay but not when she was away. I'm at home since I had number three but still in contact with our

Gosh I would have given a limb for €927!!!! Childcare costs are absolutely insane. We were paying 2k a month a one point. Soul destroying.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120505844#Comment_120505844

Yep we were paying over 2k ourselves at one point when we had the first two in childcare. Absolute insane.

It just annoys me that government ministers are going on about the great progress in childcare costs yet we are still paying 927 a month!!

Zinoviev

The prices mentioned here for Child Care are absolutely horrific. I do not know how Irish families function. Married to a German and living here we have one Child. He is 1 year old and in Kindergarten 08:00- 16:00 Monday to Friday. It costs 160€ per month!

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120836261#Comment_120836261

Lol! €160 PM!

How is the price so low? Is it the government that provides the crèche and crèche staff or do the government pay private companies so prices are kept low?

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120843611#Comment_120843611

The rates are similar in Finland or Sweden. The costs here are staggering really.

CPTM

My one year old got a high temperature last Friday afternoon but it was the final week where we had to fulfill the hours for NCS so I had to leave her in there for an extra 40 minutes or the funding would have been reduced. I was literally sitting outside counting down the minutes while she was teething inside. I'm still very annoyed about it. It shouldn't be like this.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121049745#Comment_121049745

What way is the service paid for in these countries though?

The parents pay €160 PM but does the government pay the rest? Are the costs to run crèches lower in these countries, ie lower insurance, lower wages, lower electricity, lower food costs etc?

Is the rate of tax higher in these countries and that tax then pays for these crèche services?

fits

Of course the government pays the rest. Tax is a bit higher but not that much higher.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121052028#Comment_121052028

How much higher is tax?

For example could we raise tax by 1% and cover the cost of this- or is it that wages, insurance, electricity are just extortionate in this country?

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121053539#Comment_121053539

I dunno. You can google this stuff as well as I can.

salmocab

The government here has started paying some of the fees as most know, they also pay a monthly fee that is reasonably big but they have to jump through a lot of hoops and agree to things that they may not like. Not everyone has signed up to that. There is talk of providers doing a 3 day work stoppage in the near future, they are really not happy with the way things are going, the admin is becoming obscene and pointlessly complicated.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121053626#Comment_121053626

Yeah so I’ve heard alright.

I mean the whole thing seems a bit half hearted from the government- just come out and say tax is going up by 1.5 % to cover the cost of crèche fees for parents- but at the same time ensuring crèche fees don’t go up to absorb the government money.

So I suppose a guaranteed maximum amount to be paid for parents.

There’d be enough working parents in the country to ensure this is a vote winner.

tom1ie

Folks does anyone know if this 25% cut in childcare costs (supposedly in the budget) will translate over to private childcare crèches (which I imagine is the majority of crèches in Ireland?)

Also has anyone got a list to public crèches in Ireland for toddlers- 18 months old?

Thanks.

sekond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121217248#Comment_121217248

There are no public creches in Ireland. All creches are either private or community/not-for profit. Any cut in childcare costs (I'd imagine it will be through the NCS if it happens) would apply to all creches whether they are private or community.

tom1ie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121217332#Comment_121217332

Ah ok that makes sense.

It was just the way it was worded on the 9 news last night that had me scratching my head a bit.

elefant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120836261#Comment_120836261

I'm in the Netherlands. We do two days a week at the moment, and it's around €550 a month after the government subsidy. It would be around a thousand a month without the subsidy. Lower earners get a higher subsidy, but I don't think it would ever get close to as low as what you have in Germany.

It's very hard to even get a place in daycares in the bigger cities here. We had our names down at probably 10+ daycares nearby from the time we found out we were expecting, and were thankful to get a spot in one around a month before the due date.

Papav3r

Looks like the next 25% cut won't be in place until September 2024.

Not sure why this can't be instant. They made all the changes required last year to handle the extra payments coming through the NCS. So the fact they're waiting until 2024 is piss take. It's practically budget 2025 at that stage.