Childcare fees to be reduced to under €200 a week from September

Childcare fees for some parents will be capped at just under €200 a week under new plans unveiled by the Children's Minister.
Norma Foley confirmed that this could save parents paying the highest fees €1,500 over the course of a year.
She also vowed that the Government will implement €200-a-month childcare fees over the course of this Government's five-year term.
A new maximum fee cap will now be introduced for all new services availing of State funding through the Core Funding scheme from this September.
Under these new maximum fee caps, the highest possible fees will be no more than €295 per week for a full-day place with 40 to 50 hours per week.
This will reduce costs for families who are facing the highest fees across the country in around 10 per cent of early learning and childcare providers.
These fees will be reduced further by State subsidies under the National Childcare Scheme and the free, universal two-year Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) preschool programme.
A parent being charged the maximum permissible fee of €295 per week for a full day place would be entitled to receive the universal National Childcare Scheme subsidy of €96.30, meaning their own payment would be no more than €198.70 per week.
Higher subsidies are available for many parents, depending on their level of income and the age and number of children in early education.
Ms Foley said the Government is on an "unfinished journey" to reduce the cost of childcare.
The highest cost of childcare fees ranges between €300 and €325 a week, with Minister Foley arguing that the fee freeze will save parents €1,500 per child.
The Programme for Government commits to introducing €200 a month childcare.
Minister Foley said: "We're absolutely clear that the Programme for Government has a very clear commitment around the €200 and that is our absolute goal.
"I've been very clear that we would do that over the lifetime of this government. It will be incremental.
"The steps we take today, we're starting at the very top where there's an extraordinarily high cost to parents and we're beginning to bring that down."
Compared to this time last year, there has been an increase in 226 providers taking part in the Core Funding model.
This is despite providers threatening to pull out of the scheme because it was not meeting their increasing costs or inflation.
Ms Foley announced that increased Core Funding of €390 million will be available from September.

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