I am a sessional childcare provider who cannot afford to pay sick pay if it is brought in. I have 3 fantastic staff who are qualified & experienced & their wages reflect this, leaving a very tight margin at the end of the year. I had a tax audit two years ago & revenue wondered why I am still in business. My reply is that I love what we do & we can & do make the difference to young children’s lives.

If my childcare providers increase its fees by say 12%,it will be the same as my mortgage !! And my bundle of joy was born in August,which means he can’t start school till he is 5 !!!

Childcare providers are teachers of the early years and should have the same sick leave as primary and secondary school teachers which, if my daughter’s teacher last year was anything to go by, is very adequate!

The government needs to start coping on to the fact that Childcare is more them just a babysitting service compared to other country the wage’s that Childcare Staff are payed here is a joke

I worked in childcare for ten years and myself and my co workers had every illness going and were almost permanently sick. Its a combination of the long hours, the physicaliity of the work which is exhausting and spending your days in fairly crowded conditions with lots of small children. The wages are so bad and we were sick so often we couldn’t afford to take many sick days and had to go in sick most of the time. Its known as the burn out profession and I gave up when I developed chronic fatigue, haven’t had a cold or a virus since.

If this is brought in I am afraid it will put many SME’s like myself to the wall.

I have worked in the early years sector for the past 20years and have seen it move from being pretty much a voluntary workforce to a highly regulated and increasingly qualified and experienced workforce. The vast majority of professionals working in the early years are on minimum wage or there abouts and if you include all the required paperwork and preparation most would come in under minimum wage as they are only paid for contact hours. Higher qualifications are being required and this is a good thing as our little citizens of today and the adults of tomorrow deserve a professional team working with them. All these costs are being absorbed by the individual with little or no additional renumeration on the horizon. There are NO MASSIVE PROFITS in this sector and enforcing employers to pay sick leave will result in closure, job loss, reduced quality and lack of quality childcare provision. The government needs to realise this is a sector in severe crisis

The pay is bad but I think that a lot of childcare providers are struggling to make ends meet too. Why not put some of the stimulus jobs package money into this area, it could improve standards and wages and create some jobs for women as well as helping out struggling families.

It is my belief that childcare professionals should receive the same entitlements as primary school educators – decent salaries, increments, sick pay, time in lieu for training. A person working in the childcare sector will receive an hourly rate of minimum wage – 15 euro (I would say this is top’s) at the discretion of the childcare service. They are also required to work outside of paid hours to undergo training on a regular basis. Having also worked in the primary sector for a few years, I am aware that teachers receive time in lieu and travel expenses to attend training. Maybe some of the different government agencies who work alongside the childcare sectors and provide training and advice could tackle some of these issues.

Sorry Irene. You are out of line. Irish sick pay arrangements currently represent a massive subsidy to business, and that’s why you and IBEC are bleating about it.

We are also way out of line with other countries in the state provision of child care, by the way. As in every other area of Irish life, we are happy to give welfare to business, but not to the people who need it, such as those already being hammered with mortgages.

This ridiculous plan will kill off many small business leaving it all open to bigger & bigger corporations to take up the slack…!!!

This shower of Clowns are not serving Irish people they serve the Bondholders, Big Business, Themselves, Advisors and their Cronies…!!!

The Labour party have completely sold out the Irish people, how can their backbenchers put up with this crippling of Irish Small Business knowing they will not be re-elected…!!!

Having worked in community based childcare for 7 years, I could count on one hand the number of sick days I have had. The same can be said for the majority of my colleagues. I wouldn’t necessarily agree that childcare staff get sicker more often because they catch everything that the children carry in them. In our facility, staff are paid for sick leave and do not abuse this. Employment rights are in place to protect all workers.

Don’t think anyone’s going to be too bothered about the childcare industry taking a hit in their profits.