I’m worried about the high costs of childcare for my family. What measures were announced in Budget 2026 that will help me?
Reducing childcare costs has been a headline theme of budgets in recent years but there is no measure announced in Budget 2026 to bring down the monthly cost of childcare for families.
The Government effectively froze childcare fees at 2021 levels four years ago, and Budget 2026 will continue to keep fees at these levels for the majority of childcare providers.
So will Budget 2026 do anything to make childcare more affordable?
Minister for Children Norma Foley said on Tuesday she is aware that, for some families, the cost of childcare remains “much too high”. There will be a new “maximum fee cap” to try to reduce the costs for families who live in parts of the country with the most expensive childcare fees.
But it won’t be in place until September 2026, and we will have to wait a few months to find out more, including how many families this could help and what the new maximum monthly childcare fee would be. Under the current maximum fee cap, childcare cannot cost more than €295 per week for a full day place.
RM Block
How much lower that maximum cap will be will depend on the resources of the Department and the financial returns from childcare providers, both of which won’t be clear until March 2026, Ms Foley said on Tuesday.
Wait – I thought the Government parties promised to cut childcare fees to €200 a month?
Yes, they did. Like almost every other political party that campaigned in last year’s general election, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised to reduce childcare fees to €200 a month. While Fianna Fáil had declined to commit to a date by which the measure would be introduced, Fine Gael had promised to introduce it in this budget.
In the days before the election last November, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris had said the measure would be announced in Budget 2026 and in place by January 2026. His party also planned to publish an action plan on childcare within the first 100 days of the new Government.
[ Pay increases for childcare workers to take effect this monthOpens in new window ]
But after the Programme for Government negotiations, the Coalition committed to “progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200” over the lifetime of the Government. Speaking after Budget 2026, Ms Foley was unable to say when the Government would achieve its €200 promise but said it would happen over “the lifetime of this Government”. “So that’s a five year programme ... and it will be step by step, incrementally over the five years of Government budgets.”
So what is the Government doing?
It seems that the Government has decided to prioritise access and accessibility to childcare places in Budget 2026, rather than the cost of childcare itself. According to the Department of Children, the Government is investing €1.48 billion on early learning and childcare. It said that this will allow 35,000 more children to enrol in the National Childcare Scheme, which is a Government subsidy towards the cost of private childcare. At the moment, there are 250,000 children currently enrolled in the scheme.
Some of the funding for the next year will also go towards a 10 per cent increase in the minimum rate of pay for early years educators. This was announced and reported on earlier this month.
What about a public childcare model?
A lot of women’s groups and Opposition politicians have been calling for the Government to move towards a public childcare model for years. Ms Foley said that the Government was committed to a State-led model, but again this would be something that would take some time to develop.
But the National Women’s Council of Ireland was critical of the fact that the additional childcare places in Budget 2026 “will be delivered through existing schemes which continues to rely on private and often for-profit providers”.
