New State-led childcare programme welcome step in the right direction
Published: Thursday, October 01, 2026
National Women’s Council says public provision still best option for women
Press release, 30 September 2026
The announcement of nine new State-led early years education and care facilities has been welcomed by the National Women’s Council (NWC). NWC has been leading a campaign for public childcare for many years now, and it has been our top call ahead of every Budget for the last number of years. This year, we called on government to pilot public childcare in the areas most in need.
NWC Executive Director Corrinne Hasson said “Children and families all over the country are in desperate need of good quality, affordable and accessible childcare. But in some parts of the country, it is simply not profitable for private providers to establish early years centres. These are the places where the State must step in urgently. So this announcement is very welcome from that perspective. But this crisis will only be addressed if government takes the next crucial step, and begins delivering public childcare.”
NWC leads the Together for Public Alliance of 50 organisations calling for a public childcare system. The Alliance differentiates between State-led and public provision. A key difference is that in a not-for-profit model, parents are still paying fees and while these fees do not go into profits for investors, they are used to pay educators’ wages. In a public system, the State would pay educators’ fees and provide decent working conditions for the workforce, the majority of whom are women. Parents would not pay fees, like in the rest of our education system. NWC fears that in the State-led model, the childcare staffing crisis will continue. NWC has called on government in Budget 2027 to pay educators’ wages as another step towards a public system, and as a viable way to meet the election promise of lowering fees to below €200 a month.
Corrinne Hasson continued: “A fully public system, similar to our primary school system or the system in Finland, is the best option for women, children and families. We need a system where every child is guaranteed a place, where no child is left behind because they have additional needs, live rurally or are part of a minority community. We need a system where families don’t pay fees. And we need a system that prioritises our children’s early years education.”
NWC looks forward to further detail on this plan in next Tuesday’s budget.
Ends/
Find here the Together for Public Roadmap to Public Childcare: https://www.nwci.ie/images/uploads/Roadmap_Position_Paper_26052026_.pdf.pdf
For more information, please contact Sinéad Nolan, NWC Senior Communications Coordinator, sineadn@nwci.ie