With rising costs and limited places, working parents are caught between a rock and a hard place
Monthly childcare fees can cost as much as €1,600 in Dublin. Photo: Getty
For parents like Aoife Whelan, a mother-of-two living in Sallins, Co Kildare, Ireland’s childcare crisis begins before their child is even born. “I had to take a full year off for my first baby, as there was no childcare available after my maternity leave finished.
“For my second child, I put my name down at 12 weeks’ pregnant, but now they can’t even tell me if or when I’ll have a space. This puts me in an impossible situation at work.”
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