With the traditional Budget dripfeed in full swing, Labour leader Ivana Bacik has questioned what exactly the government is planning to do to reduce the costs of childcare.
The cost-of-living crisis has subsided somewhat compared to it’s 2022 peak, but it still persists, with childcare commonly cited as a major drain on family finances.
Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael pledged to reduce childcare costs in their election manifestos last November, but the upcoming Budget and what we know so far implies that childcare costs will be taking a backseat.
Bacik told the Dáil after its summer recess that “silly season is over” and day-to-day issues like childcare costs need to be addressed.
The Dublin Bay South TD said, “families across Ireland are facing an emergency. For far too many, the cost of living has become unbearable. Prices are rising faster than wages, rents are unaffordable, and energy bills remain among the highest in Europe. Yet the government is signaling that it will prioritise ineffective tax cuts that will do little to help those on the margins.”
Statistics show that one in five children, or roughly 225,000 children (or the population of Cork City) are now living in poverty, a stat which Bacik dubbed “a stain on us all.”
“Parents are lying awake at night worrying about keeping the lights on, keeping the house warm, or being able to give their children a Christmas. Families are being pushed to the brink while government talks down the prospect of a cost-of-living emergency package. That is shameful,” she said.
Mood music from the government over the summer indicates that the October 7 Budget will not be focused on cost-of-living measures like what happened in the last three Budgets as the government looks to tighten its belt amid global economic uncertainty.
Bacik noted “we are seeing greedflation take root, with soaring food prices and energy companies raking in huge profits while households suffer – meanwhile, child poverty rates have risen to levels not seen since Fianna Fáil crashed the economy in 2007.”
She said that this government has failed to put in place the safety net families needed since the pandemic and the war in Ukraine started in early 2022.
“They must act now before more lives are scarred by poverty and inequality,” she told the Dáil.
She said that Labour is calling for the reinstatement of targeted energy credits, a feature of previous budgets that the government has implied will not be present in next month’s Budget.
She also called for a second, targeted rate of child benefit to give immediate help to children in poverty, as well as the abolishment of the means test for Carer’s Allowance, and a Cost of Disability payment of at least €20 per week.
“Silly season is over. The focus of this Budget must be children and families, not internal party politics or tax cuts for the better-off. I say to the Taoiseach: when faced with political choices in Budget 2026, will you choose to support children and families? Will you make the investment needed to end child poverty? The time for excuses is over – now is the time to act.”