MINISTER FOR CHILDREN Roderic O’Gorman has said a major survey conducted by his department has indicated that 85% of creches are set to re-open.

O’Gorman’s clarification came after Tánaiste Leo Vardkar earlier told the Dáil that just 60% of childcare facilities would re-open in September.

A spokesperson for the Fine Gael leader later said that he’d been given “inaccurate” information from the Department of Children on the matter. 

Varadkar told the Dáil that the government wants to ensure the sector is “fully up and running” by the autumn to meet demand but cautioned that not all childcare services will return.

“60% of the existing services have indicated they will be reopening by September and this portion may rise,” he said.

He was responding to Aontú TD Peadar Toibin who said he has information that 180 childcare providers have closed due to the lack of supports. He said: “As many as 10% of childcare providers have shut down already due to the lack of support. And the closures are accelerating.”

Speaking to Mary Wilson on RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime programme, O’Gorman said that the 60% figure quoted by the Tánaiste referred to the proportion of childcare providers who’ve so far applied for a once-off re-opening grant.

His predecessor Katherine Zappone announced the €75 million scheme last month. 

“60% of providers had applied for the capital grant [on Monday], and that the was the 60% figure the Tánaiste gave to the Dáil,” O’Gorman said, adding that as of today 66% of all childcare providers had applied for the re-start grant to enable them to re-open.

The Green Party TD then described a major survey of childcare providers conducted in recent weeks which included 2,000 of the approximately 4,500 creches owners in Ireland. 

“Of those 2,000, 85% said they would be re-opening, 2% said they’d be closing and 13% were examining the situation,” O’Gorman said. “It’s not every single provider but it’s a very high proportion.”

He said that every childcare provider closing had to notify Tusla and, to date this year, there’d been 68 such notifications to Tusla. The minister said this figure was 92 the previous year, and that 17 new providers were set to open in September. 

In a statement today, the Federation of Early Childhood Providers stepped up its calls for urgent government support.

Its chairperson Elaine Dunne said: “The government needs to listen to us and understand the extreme hardship and pain many providers are currently enduring, not to mention parents trying to get back to work and no one there to help them.

Today, we step up our call to urgently meet with the new administration and hear our plight. In just two weeks, we have lost 150 providers. 55 have closed in the past week and 8 in just the past 24 hours. This is only going to escalate further as we are all running at a loss.

O’Gorman said he hoped to be in a position to provide further financial support to the sector in the government’s July Stimulus, which is expected in the coming weeks. He said would look in detail at any proposal from the sector on what supports are required. 

“It’s essential for the wider economy, and certainty in childcare places will support parents in the move back to work,” he said.