Will the Government cut childcare costs to €200 a week? 

Reducing the often eyewatering cost of childcare in Ireland has been on the Government’s agenda for several years. 

During Government formation talks, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael agreed to, “Progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child through the National Childcare Scheme”. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Irish Times journalist Jack Horgan Jones described it as “one of the most ambitious promises” buried within the Programme for Government. 

“In many areas, it’s €200 per week for full time care,” he explained. 

“What we understand is that at this stage of the budget negotiations, the discussions or the plans being circulated by Minister Norma Foley are focusing in on measures that would help out families paying at the very top end of those childcare fee ranking tables. 

“You’re looking, predominantly, at geographic areas in the east of the country, clustered around the capital - also, Cork City.”

Young children with their mother. Picture by: Piere Bonbon / Alamy.com. 

That said, despite the scale of the ambition, the details of how the costs will be brought down remain hazy at this stage. 

Budget 2026 is due to be delivered next month and Ministers are still thrashing out the details. 

“We don’t know the exact mechanism whereby they would target further reductions at the very top level,” Mr Horgan Jones added. 

“I suppose one possibility, a cap could be lowered further. 

“We don’t know exactly what that kind of real world cap is going to be because while it was announced earlier on this year, it’s only coming into effect now. 

“So, the effort is to cap it at €295 per week.” 

Babies playing on the floor with toys in a creche. Picture by: Oksana Kuzmina / Alamy Stock Photo. 

Mr Horgan Jones continued that childcare costs remain a “complex, multifaceted problem” and that cutting costs at the top might have no impact on most parents with children in childcare. 

“You could potentially argue that by taking out the very top price creches and forcing them to bring down their costs, you are bringing down the average,” he said. 

“That’s just the mathematical impact of taking out the people at the top of the distribution. 

“Whereas really, the big problem is the large amount of people paying a large amount of fees around the middle.

“That’s really what drives up the costs for so many households up and down the country. 

“Not the smaller number of people who are paying at the very, very top of the market.” 

Regardless, Mr Horgan Jones predicted that whatever solution is revealed in the budget, it will mean “the application of significant amounts of public money”.

Main image: A group of children from a nursery. Picture by: Gary Hider / Alamy.com.