12/09/2025
Federation to Government & Departments: Enough Empty Promises — Early Years Sector Needs Real Action Now
Some pat themselves on the back for ten-year plans and glossy strategies, Ireland’s early years sector is collapsing in real time, and the evidence is undeniable.
The Federation of Early Childhood Providers has one clear message for government departments and policymakers: the time for spin, self-congratulation, and long-term promises is over.
We were proud to play a key role in supporting and facilitating the peer reviewed DCU study that has finally exposed, in black and white, the devastating toll on early years providers across the country. That research has given the sector the national recognition it deserves.
But recognition without action is meaningless.
While government departments issue press releases praising strategies like First 5, providers on the ground are working through exhaustion, battling financial collapse, and living with mental health scores that would shock any responsible government into immediate action.
And yet, there is silence. More plans. More promises. More delays.
The Evidence Could Not Be Clearer
The DCU study — built on the voices of hundreds of providers — reveals a sector on its knees:
• 95% report severe stress and financial pressure.
• 60% scored below healthy well-being levels on the WHO-5 mental health index.
• 1 in 5 are at risk of depression from the relentless strain of keeping their doors open.
These are not just numbers. They represent real people, real families, real services that keep communities alive.
Every percentage point in that study is a provider who has spent nights wondering if they can pay staff next month.
Every statistic is a manager drowning under paperwork while politicians talk about “simplifying the system.”
The Government’s Narrative vs. Reality
The government loves to talk about First 5 and “transformative change.”
But let’s be blunt:
• These plans are ten-year roadmaps while the sector is in crisis today and has been for enough time to allow people to lose faith in the future.
• They are political headlines designed to sound impressive while ignoring the reality on the ground.
• And worst of all, they are used to paint a picture of progress while providers see nothing change year after year, only a more difficult hill to climb.
The Federation has been in meeting rooms, on committees, in consultations, and time and again, the same pattern repeats:
• A scheme is rolled out with no meaningful consultation with independent provider bodies.
• The paperwork and compliance demands grow heavier.
• Funding models fail to meet real costs. Falling short massively to our European counterparts.
• Early Years Services — the backbone of early years care — are buried under bureaucracy they can’t survive.
And when providers raise the alarm, they are told to wait for the next plan, the next vision, the next “transformative” idea that never delivers on the basics.
How Many Times Must We Say It?
This Federation has been raising the alarm for years.
Surveys. Forums. Meetings. Presentations to committees. Each time, the message is the same:
• Funding is inadequate.
• Fee freezes hampering income & educator wages relying on government money for any increase at all, no progression or incentive to venture to open a new service is driving staff out of the sector.
• Paperwork and regulation are suffocating services.
• Consultation is tokenistic at best.
And each time, the response is the same: “We have a strategy. We have a plan. Change is coming.”
But it never comes.
The reality is staring everyone in the face: this sector is collapsing while politicians argue over timelines and policies.
How many more studies? How many more surveys? How many more providers have to burn out, close down, or walk away before the government acts?
Real Action, Not Rhetoric
The Federation demands immediate, concrete steps on the core issues we have raised time and again:
1. Sustainable Funding Now
Stop underfunding services while pretending the sector is thriving. Our government has the money, is the future of our country not worth it to them? Fund services to reflect the real costs of keeping doors open and paying staff fairly to the tune of our counterparts.
2. Cut the Red Tape
Simplify compliance. End the avalanche of paperwork that takes time away from children and adds crushing pressure to providers.
3. End Fee Freezes Allow Incentive & Progression to flourish again
Without competitive wages, progression and incentive to grow the crisis will only get worse. Stop the exodus of the sector before there is no workforce left.
4. Real Consultation Before Rollouts
Work with independent provider bodies at the start — not after schemes fail on the ground. Providers know what works; policymakers must listen before acting.
5. Mental Health Supports
The human cost on providers is undeniable. Immediate access to mental health supports is essential if the sector is to survive.
6. The Clock Has Run Out
This is not a call for another ten-year plan. This is not about future promises.
This is about action now — today, this month, this year because providers, families, and staff cannot wait any longer.
The Federation is proud to have played a pivotal role in exposing this crisis through the DCU study. But evidence alone will not save this sector.
The time for spin is over. The time for real, measurable change is long overdue.
Until these problems are solved, no strategy, no press conference, and no political promises will save Ireland’s early years sector from collapse.
Every day without action pushes more providers to the brink — this crisis isn’t coming, it’s already here, and the time to act is now.
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