October 2007
EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare
EAPN IRELAND
CHILDCARE BENCHMARKING PAPER
Foreword
The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland is a network of groups and
individuals in Ireland working against poverty that aim to put the fight against poverty
at the top of national and EU agendas. Quality accessible childcare has been proven to
have positive outcomes for children and families in poverty. Ireland now has one of
the highest levels of childcare costs within Europe; we also have one of the highest
levels of child poverty. In this paper, EAPN Ireland urges the government to make
affordability a central concern of emerging policy on childcare to ensure the goal of
equitable access for all families and their childcare and to ensure that childcare
responses meet the needs of families on low incomes.
Background
In Spring of this year (2007), EAPN Ireland hosted a number of workshops and focus
groups and commissioned the production of this policy paper on childcare in Ireland.
Feedback from participants at the workshops and focus groups highlighted the lack of
access to affordable, quality childcare in Ireland for families on low incomes and its
impact on families and on their children. Participants made a clear call for increased
public investment in childcare to ensure equitable access for all families, regardless of
status or income. This policy paper was produced in September-October 2007, taking
direction from the previous consultations and building on a review of domestic, EU
and international policy developments.
Introduction:
Universal access to quality and affordable childcare in Ireland is an oft-repeated call
of many organisations and agencies seeking ways to mitigate the effects of poverty
and social exclusion and promote access to employment, education and training as a
route out of poverty. Though childcare has received more government attention – and
funding – in recent years in Ireland, levels of public provision of childcare, and thus
access to affordable childcare, lag behind many of our European neighbours. The
current European Union (EU) and international trend is to provide at least two years
of publicly funded care and education before beginning compulsory education.
Improving access has become one of the key concerns of childcare policy. Access
relates to a number of areas including affordability, availability in rural and urban
areas and for children with different needs (NESF 2005).
In this paper, taking as our starting point the urging of the UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child in a recently issued General Comment to all States,
[To] implement systematic strategies to reduce poverty in early childhood as well as combat
its negative effects on children’s well-being (UNCRC 2006).
the European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland (EAPN) explains why access to quality
childcare is so important to children and families on low incomes and why childcare
can be a significant strategy in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. The
paper givens a brief overview of EU and international developments on early
childhood education and care as a backdrop to recent developments in Irish
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EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare
government policy on childcare provision and places. To help benchmark progress in
Ireland on childcare with developments in other EU countries, this paper includes a
brief overview of the responses to childcare needs of Denmark and Sweden. It
concludes with recommendations to strengthen and enhance Irish government policy
on childcare at this time.
Why childcare is important in the fight against poverty and social exclusion
Investment in the early childhood period is widely recognised as a sound approach to
human resources policy and to child welfare. In many countries, early childhood
services are considered a public good and receive significant investment from the
state. Growing up in poverty has serious negative consequences for a child’s
development: these consequences are more severe, the longer the period of poverty
lasts and the more frequently the child experiences poverty. Considerable evidence
demonstrates that investment in the early childhood period has significant, lasting
positive effects on the educational outcomes of disadvantaged children, as well as
having anti-poverty outcomes. A recent EU-commissioned study on child poverty
concluded –
The provision of high quality, affordable and universal childcare offered at flexible times is
essential for the reduction of child poverty as well as for the prevention of negative child
outcomes. It is an effective means of preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
The expansion of public childcare or public subsidies to private childcare facilities should
thus be high on the political agenda (Hoelscher 2004).
Childcare is important not only as an anti-poverty measure for children and families
on low-incomes. Recognition has also grown of its role in promoting women’s
equality, supporting diverse families and fostering the inclusion of different groups
and communities within our society.
EU and international approaches to childcare provision
While the EU’s approach to childcare in the past has been dominated by concerns of
gender equality and labour market accessibility, in recent years the visibility of
children as citizens of the EU has emerged more prominently. Childcare emerged on
the EU social agenda in the 1980s as an equal opportunities issue, and, in 1986 the
European Commission Network on Childcare was created. In March 1992, the
Council of Ministers adopted a landmark Recommendation on Childcare which
recommended Member States to develop childcare services, focusing on affordability
and accessibility and the capacity to meet the needs of children with special needs.
Flexibility and diversity of childcare services were encouraged, as was financial
contribution from public authorities to ensure affordability and parental choice.
In 1996, the Network drew up a blueprint for a European childcare strategy containing
forty targets across a number of areas including policy, finance, levels and types of
services, parents and community. One of its targets was that publicly funded services
should offer full time equivalent places for at least 90% of children aged 3-6 years and
for at least 15% of children under three. A Commission report in 1998 on the
implementation of the 1992 Recommendation, affirming the ‘central role’ of childcare
in national policies aimed at reconciling work and family life, found that ‘only some
of the Member States report initiatives specifically to implement the
recommendation’, and that none had established a system to monitor it.
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EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare
The employment policy objectives agreed to at the Lisbon Council in March 2000
included the objective of reaching at least 60% employment rate among women
within the decade. The Barcelona Council of March 2002 called for a revised
Employment Strategy to underpin the Lisbon strategy and set targets for Member
States on the provision of childcare by 2010 – ‘to at least 90% of children between 3
years old and the mandatory school age, and at least 33% of children under 3 years of
age’. The Council does not state how these should be achieved, merely noting that this
can be ‘in line with patterns of provision’ (European Council 2002). However, this
target is also included in the Employment Guidelines (2005-2008) as a benchmark.
Furthermore, the significance of childcare to enhancing labour market participation is
also recognised in the Commission’s Social Agenda (2005-2010).
One recent and very welcome development is the Commission’s intention to create
the first-ever EU strategy on children’s rights. Announced in a Communication in July
2006, the Commission proposed an assessment of the effectiveness of existing EU
actions affecting children and specific action on child poverty (European Commission
2006). The EU already explicitly recognises children’s rights to ‘such protection and
care as is necessary’ in Article 24 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
As we can see, more recent EU developments on childcare relate to a number of areas
including gender equality, labour market participation and reconciling work and
family life – policy areas which Ireland, as a Member State, actively engages in. Of
particular relevance to the Irish context is the identification of clear targets set by the
EU for the provision of childcare which can complement and augment domestic
targets.
The OECD has undertaken a broad and systemic study of services for young children
and published a number of important reports that not only include valuable
information and analyses of countries’ responses but also identify key policy elements
of successful early childhood education and care. These include
 A universal approach to access, with particular attention to children in need of
special support
 Substantial public investment in services and the infrastructure
 A systemic and integrated approach to policy development and
implementation
Let us now turn to two EU member states – Denmark and Sweden and see how they
have developed their responses to the provision of childcare.
Approaches to childcare from Denmark and Sweden
Data on these countries are drawn from work undertaken by the OECD in 2004.
Denmark:
In 2004, the number of children under 6 years was approx. 400,000. The child poverty
rate was 2.4% after taxes and transfers – the lowest rate in the world. A total of 76.1%
of women (15-64) participated in the formal labour market; for mothers whose
youngest child is under 6, the rate was 74%.
Childcare services include day care facilities for children from 6 months to 6 years
(including family day care and centre-based day care) and independent day care
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EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare
facilities. The national authority for childcare centres is the Ministry of Family and
Consumer Affairs, while administration and management is the responsibility of the
local authorities (funding and establishing services to meet demand, provision of staff
and staff support etc.). About 70% of day care facilities are operated by public,
community services, supplemented by independent, non-profit providers and
networks, thereby offering parents a choice of service.
Rates of access to regulated care are: 0-1 year: 12%; 1-2 years: 83%; 3-5 years: 94%
and 98% of 5-6/7 year olds are in free pre-school classes.
Inclusion of children with disabilities in all early services and schools is common and
in February 2000, the government published an overall action plan for the integration
of children of immigrants and those who are bilingual. It is now mandatory for local
authorities to offer language-stimulation activities to bilingual children from 3 years.
Investment in early childhood education and care is high, approximately 2.1% of
GDP. Fees are capped at 30-33% of running costs with poorer families using services
free of charge or at reduced rates. Fees are to be reduced to 25% of costs by 2007.
Sweden:
In 2004, the number of children under 7 was approximately 420,000. The child
poverty rate was 4.2% after taxes and transfers. The labour force participation rate of
women (15-64) was 76.6%, and the employment rate of women with children under 3
was 44% full-time and 36.2% part-time.
Services range from pre-school centres (for children from 1-6 years of age); leisure
time centres offering part-time activities for children from 6-12 years; and open preschools for use by parents caring for children in the home and family day care
providers. By law, all children 1-12 years have a right to pre-school education. Most
pre-school provision is provided directly by municipalities in day care centres though
private day-care also exists. Responsibility for central policy, goals, guidelines and
the financial framework for early childhood education and care lies solely with the
Swedish Ministry of Education and Science. Municipalities have the duty to create
sufficient numbers of pre-school and leisure-time places, to monitor quality and
provide sufficient resources.
Rates of access to regulated services are: 45% of 1-2 year olds; 86% of 2-3 year olds;
91% of 3-4 year olds; and 96% of 5-6 year olds.
Children with disabilities have priority right to services and are well integrated, and
additional educators are often supplied to centres receiving more low-income or
immigrant children. The government has made funds available to provide daily, a free
3-hour session of day care for bilingual children from the age of 3 years. All children
in need of specialist support are entitled to mainstream early childhood education and
care free of charge.
Funding of pre-school services amounted to 1.9% of GDP in 2004. Parental fees cover
about 9% of costs in pre-school amounting to about 2% over average income.
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EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare
Table 1:
Comparative data on childcare Ireland, Denmark and Sweden in 2004
Ireland
Denmark
USD 33,200
USD 29, 200
GDP per capita
Sweden
USD 28,100
Number of children
(under 6 years) c.330,000
(under 6 years) 400,000
(under 7 years) c.420,000
Child poverty rate
15.7% after taxes and transfers
2.4% after taxes and transfers
4.2% after taxes and transfers
Funding of pre-school services
0.44% of GDP
2.1% of GDP
Over 1.9% of GDP
0-1 year: 12%
Rates of access to regulated 0-3 years: 10-15%
3-6 years: 56% enrolled in public 1-2 years: 83%
childcare
pre-primary
3-5 years: 94%
Average costs to parents
0-3 years: 51% of total costs or
30% of the disposable income of
the average double income family,
unless subsidies exist.
4-6 years: morning session of preprimary is free, other services are
paying services.
1-2 years: 45%
2-3 years: 86%
3-4 years: 91%
5-6 years: 96%
Costs are capped at 30-33% of Parental fees cover about 9% of
costs with low-income families costs in pre-school, amounting to
paying much less. Average about 2% of average income.
parental contribution comes to
about 22% of costs.
Labour force participation of Women with youngest child 0-3: Mothers with children 3 and 76.6% of women (aged 15-64)
51.1%; women with youngest below: 70%; children 3-7: about participate.
women with children under 6
child 3-6: 52%.
80%
Adapted from OECD (2006) Country Profiles.
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While the above data offers only a very cursory comparison, they do highlight the very low
levels of public funding and public provision of childcare in Ireland. Also highlighted are
the much higher costs to families in Ireland of accessing childcare – in terms of the
proportion of the family’s income and in relation to the total overall costs of providing
childcare. For families in poverty and on low incomes, this is a very significant factor
limiting access for their children to early childhood education and care.
The preceding sections describing the EU policy framework on childcare and responses by
Denmark and Sweden offer a useful backdrop against which Irish policy responses to
childcare can be assessed. The following sections give an overview of the current childcare
landscape in Ireland and current policy commitments.
On overview of childcare in Ireland
Historically, the development of childcare in Ireland has been strongly influenced by
prevailing stereotypical perceptions of women’s and mothers’ care roles. Caring for
children was considered a private, family matter and women were expected to take the bulk
of responsibility for it. The result was that successive Irish governments largely ignored
childcare for decades. However as a consequence of increased economic growth and
women’s employment, as well as changes to family structure, childcare has received much
more attention since the mid-1990s resulting in increasing awareness that responsibility for
childcare necessitates a public response.
A brief overview of the childcare landscape in Ireland reveals  The ‘early childhood’ population – children at 6 years of age or under – is 418,612
persons according to the most recent Census of Population (2006).
 While accurate data describing levels of all current childcare provision are not
available, a childcare census published in 2003 (drawing from data gathered in
1999-2000) estimated that 56,803 children attended childcare facilities nationally.
However, this figure excludes the most common form of childcare – formal and
informal childminding. Nationally, it was estimated that almost one quarter (23.6%)
of children aged 3-6 years attended a childcare facility while 12.8% in the 1-3 age
group attended such a facility (ADM 2003). A 2004 OECD report estimated that 1015% of children aged from 0-3 years were in government-financed services (NESF
2005).
 The average cost of childcare was just over €120 per week in early 2005, an
increase of over 23% in the two-year period from the end of 2002. Just over 40% of
families with pre-school children regularly relied on non-parental childcare
arrangements during the normal working day. Currently, pre-school childcare is
more expensive than that of school-going children (CSO 2006).Costs to parents of
childcare are among the highest in Europe and average over 30% of disposable
income for an average double income family or 51% of the actual costs of childcare
(OECD 2006).
Since we are looking at childcare from an anti-poverty and social inclusion perspective, it is
helpful to place the above data within the context of some relevant poverty data.
 Data from the CSO in 2003 indicates that children in Ireland are twice as likely to
be poor as adults with 148,000 children -14.6% of all children - found to be in
‘consistently poor’ homes. When we look at relative poverty, where household
income is below 60% of median disposable income, 242,000 (23.9%) of children
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EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare
live in ‘relatively poor’ homes. This is one of the highest rates of relative poverty
found across the EU (CPA 2005).
While lone parent households are exposed to a far higher incidence of child poverty,
households headed by a person who is unemployed, ill or disabled are also at
particular risk. Studies have also shown that children in temporary accommodation,
children from the Traveller community as well as children whose parents are
seeking asylum are at high risk of poverty (CPA 2005).
In the second quarter of 2007, the employment rate for women was almost 60.3%,
up from 43% in 1996 – exceeding the EU target of 60% (CSO, QNHS September
2007). The employment rate for women whose youngest child is 0-3 is 51.1%
(OECD 2006). The proportion of women at risk of poverty in 2005, after pensions
and social transfers, was 19.9%, compared with 17.9% of men.
With this in mind, let us now turn to looking at the Irish policy response to childcare in
recent years.
Relevant Irish policy developments in relation to childcare
Childcare and the provision of childcare have received considerable attention from a range
of interests, including government, in recent years. This attention has led to increased
understanding of the importance of childcare to children’s healthy development, to
increases in public funding to increase supply, and to a number of initiatives to improve
quality. Landmark developments included the introduction of regulations of pre-schools in
1996, the appointment of the first ever Minister for Children in 1994, the first National
Childcare Strategy in 1999 and the establishment of the National Children’s Office in 2000.
In addition, child poverty has been recognised in the first and subsequent National Action
Plans Against Poverty. The paragraphs below describe some developments in childcare
provision of particular significance for children and families in poverty.
In 2000, a €500-million Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) was initiated to
continue until 2006. It was established to increase access for parents to training, education
and employment opportunities through increasing the number and improving the quality of
childcare places. It also created an infrastructure to co-ordinate the development and
delivery of childcare through the operation of County Childcare Committees. A recent
review of the EOCP highlighted that it created over 33,500 new childcare places since its
inception, of which over 14,700 were full-time. The review also found that it made an
active contribution to social inclusion, employment, gender equality and family support
(Fitzpatrick Associates 2007). However, details on how the needs of children and families
experiencing poverty and exclusion were met were largely absent, and the programme has
been criticised for failing to address the issue of affordability to any significant extent
(NWCI 2005).
The EOCP has been succeeded by the National Childcare Investment Programme (NCIP)
(2006-2010), a €575-million programme that aims to provide a further 50,000 childcare
places over the duration of the programme. It seeks to ‘support childcare facilities for
disadvantaged parents and their children’ and ‘provide education measures for children and
adults in areas of disadvantage,’ amongst other aims. However, the need for a more clearly
articulated strategy to realise these aims has already been identified in the EOCP review. In
response, the NCIP initiated a Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (2008-2010), a
€153-million programme, to eligible community-based not-for-profit childcare services that
provides a subvention (ranging from €30-80 per week and €60-110 for children under 1
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year) to enable reduced fees to be charged to parents in receipt of social welfare payments.
It is unclear at this time what the impact of this scheme will be.
In 2006, under the National Childcare Strategy (2006-2010), a further direct, non-taxable
Early Childcare Supplement payment to parents of €1,000 a year towards childcare for
children under 6 years was introduced.
The National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (2007-2016) includes the long-term goal that
Every family should be able to access childcare services which are appropriate to the circumstances
and the needs of their children.
While the Plan includes a target of developing an infrastructure to provide quality,
affordable childcare with an overall increase of 100,000 childcare places over the period to
2016 (with the NCIP providing 50,000 of these places), no details are given of how the
balance of these places will be provided.
Advice given to the government by the OECD in 2004 pointed out that, from a cost-benefit
perspective, public funding of early childhood services will be
‘[A]mply compensated by enhanced social cohesion, improved educational levels and productivity in the next
generation, greater gender equality, increased tax returns from women’s work and by savings in health and
social security expenditure’ (OECD 2004).
This notion of childcare services as essential services and a public good with individual and
societal benefits is shared by NESC in its model of the ‘Developmental Welfare State’. It
identifies childcare as one of an essential set of services which can play a significant role in
achieving social cohesion, social inclusion and good economic performance, and
recommends an approach to access – ‘tailored universalism’ – which is tailored to an
individual’s specific circumstances (including their ability to pay) (NESC 2005).
Though there has been increased government attention and funding to childcare in recent
years, government policy and action has consistently avoided addressing the issue of
affordability, focusing instead on issues of supply, co-ordination and quality. This is despite
expert recommendations to government that include
 Extending the period of paid parental leave to one year (OECD 2004).
 A state-funded high quality early childhood education and care session for 3.5 hours
a day, five days a week for all children in the year before they go to school.
 Provision of quality early childhood education and care services to all children
under one year for parents that do not wish to stay at home and from one year up to
when children are eligible for a free pre-school place. (NESF 2005).
 A publicly subsidised early childhood care and education (ECCE) model including
subsidised full day care for one and two year olds, universal ECCE for all three and
four year olds and subsidised extended care for five to fourteen year olds (NWCI
2005).
 Linking childcare supports to the use of formal childcare (OECD 2006).
Towards the provision of quality, affordable, universally accessible childcare in
Ireland
With the heightened recognition of the importance of quality early childhood education and
care and increased funding committed to this area in recent years, Ireland has a unique
opportunity to develop an equitable and accessible system of high quality childcare in
Ireland in the immediate years ahead.
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Such a system would have benefits for all children, but especially children from families on
modest and low incomes, children from diverse households and communities and children
with special needs. It would also have a positive impact on families, especially those on low
incomes, enabling them to access training, education and employment and to achieve a
better balance between work and family life. Childcare also has special significance for
women’s participation in employment and for their participation in their communities and
society in general. The existence of quality childcare facilities in local communities can
foster social cohesion and contributes to the identity and well-being of local communities.
It is EAPN’s contention that progress made by the EOCP and the new National Childcare
Investment Programme will be considerably strengthened by the development of a number
of key areas, including  All policies relating to the provision of early childhood education and care must
recognise the contribution of childcare to social inclusion, social cohesion, gender
equality and economic and social equality.
 Childcare policy and programmes must include a strong focus on addressing
poverty and social exclusion and must clearly address affordability and accessibility
issues for specific groups experiencing poverty and social exclusion including
welfare-dependent families, families on low-incomes, children with special needs,
lone parents, Traveller families and families from ethnic minorities and immigrant
communities.
 A time-bound national plan with targets to deliver free early childhood education
and care for all pre-school-age children, whether in rural or urban areas. The plan
must be underpinned by a rights-based, targeted intervention strategy that
specifically addresses the needs of children in poverty, those with a disability or
with special education needs, children of lone parents and children from ethnic
minorities including the Traveller and immigrant communities.
 A public funding strategy that ensures universal coverage and specifically addresses
affordability for low-income families. The funding strategy must ensure the
sustained provision of quality, affordable and accessible childcare as a public good
into the longer-term.
 26 weeks paid parental leave.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
This Paper was produced by the EAPN Ireland as part of their Focus on Poverty in Ireland
Project funded by the European Commission and with support from the Office for Social
Inclusion and the Combat Poverty Agency. The paper was written for EAPN Ireland by
Siobhan Airey. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the
individual funders.
EAPN, 5 Gardiner Row, Dublin 1, Ireland; Tel: 01-8745737 or email: info@eapn.ie
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