Mayo protest by childcare providers and workers receives political support

Elected members of Mayo County Council have pledged their support to childcare workers in the county in their fight for better pay and funding.

Councillor Donna Sheridan said she cannot understand why they are not treated in the same manner as Department of Education school and staff.

"I am fully supportive of them in their campaign," she stated.

Councillor Blackie Gavin said he, too, is fully supportive of the workers.

Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, Councillor Martin McLoughlin and Councillor Mark Duffy have also displayed their support for the sector at today's protest which underway at the Mall, Castlebar.

The rally began with a gathering outside the offices of Mayo County Council before proceeding to the constituency offices of Deputy Alan Dillon.

The speakers included Frank Keane, Ballinrobe, and Lisa O'Boyle, Crossmolina, who outlined the key issues in an video interview with The Connaught Telegraph.

Elaine Dunne, chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood Providers, told The Connaught Telegraph: "Childcare providers are at their wits end.

"We are a sector that has been taken for granted for far too long.

"The government claims to have adequately funded the sector, and Minister Roderic O’Gorman has deemed our protest unwarranted.

"The truth is far from his ideological rhetoric.

"He has been asked by the Federation of Early Childhood Providers to show a breakdown of where exactly the government’s supposed funding is spent within our sector, but we’re still waiting for that information.

"The minister stays fully focused and repetitive; continually spinning the same old untrue story, that not many providers are closing their doors.

"The fact that one provider might close is one too much, and yet many more providers who have already closed their doors are still visible as functioning childcare providers on the TUSLA website.

"The information given to the public is not accurate.

"Most of our sector is barely surviving on a government pittance, as we continue to educate and care for the country's early years children.

"Their parents continue to work, supporting our economy, and meeting the costs of homes, food, clothing and education; similarly trying to provide the security that families need.

"Our families need security too, and, despite our hard work and struggle, our government fails to recognise this.

"We were urged to professionalise our sector. Many people completed degrees in Early Years Education and Care, only to find they are not nearly rewarded enough, as the government removed the higher capitation funding that incentivised us to complete degrees in the first place.

"We are now part of a new Core Funding model that simply is not working.

"Because of this model we are bound to a fees freeze that, in some cases, dates back to 2015 or 2017.

"Our utility bills have skyrocketed, as has rent, rates, mortgages and loan interest.

"Many providers are borrowing money from family, from friends and getting bank loans and overdrafts to fund facilities that provide a much-needed service, on behalf of the government, who are legally obliged to provide a childcare service.

"We need to pay our staff and ourselves properly, but we are restricted from doing so, because of a minister and his department who continue to bind us in rules, regulations and paperwork that do not serve the children of Ireland, or their parents, and certainly do not serve a functioning childcare sector.

"And, all of this incessant red-tape, to draw down inadequate funding, from a scheme that is simply not working, and has been railroaded through by a blinkered, disinterested minister and his department.

"We in the childcare and education sector have thought long and hard about this decision to protest, and we do realise this is a drastic step to take.

"Regrettably, we simply do not have a choice, as we now find ourselves in crisis, and a dire situation for childcare in Ireland, that is not of our making."

In a interview with The Connaught Telegraph, Councillor Donna Sheridan, Councillor Blackie Gavin and Councillor Michael Kilcoyne explained why they are supporting the protest.

David Donoghue, a worker in the sector, said all elected representatives had to stand up in support of childcare providers and educators.