Childcare providers are furious at plans by the Government to force them to refund parents who have been charged for services for the month of January.
In a letter sent to childcare providers this week, the Department of Children instructed childcare services to open for parents who are essential workers and vulnerable children from Monday, unless they have received formal instruction to close.
The department confirmed ways to enforce the payment of refunds were also being explored, and said that many childcare providers are already offering refunds. However, chairperson of the Federation of Early Childcare Providers, which represents more than 1400 providers, Elaine Dunne said they are being made to look “greedy”.
“The unfortunate thing for us was, from the weekend, and I suppose this is common in a pandemic, is that there was so much uncertainty and so much mixed messages coming out from Government. We opened last Monday as normal as we planned to do. We are operating at about 50pc plus occupancy across our three services.” At the moment, we are offering as normal a service as possible,” he said.
Even though schools are shut, many childcare facilities opened on Monday to provide a service for frontline and essential workers.
However, Mr Flood pointed out: “The problem is as a childcare service, we don’t feel qualified to say who is essential and who isn’t?”
Deal struck with Government to provide funding for childcare services for essential workers
The IBEC groups said all childcare services will be open for children of frontline and essential workers and vulnerable children. By Cónal Thomas Friday 8 Jan 2021, 8:35 PM Jan 8th 2021, 6:55 PM 39,833 Views 15 Comments
Updated Jan 8th 2021, 8:35 PM
A DEAL HAS been reached between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the childcare sector on emergency funding.
In a statement this evening, Childcare Services Ireland confirmed that a deal had been struck after days of uncertainty over Covid-19 restrictions and childcare for frontline workers.
“This means all childcare services will be open for children of frontline and essential workers and vulnerable children during this phase of restrictions,” the organisation sa