Men in Childcare

18/10/2026

Paint, glitter, blocks everywhere and a little beautiful chaos! To all our amazing ECEC educators, embrace the mess, celebrate the curiosity and remember that some of the best learning happens when play takes over! Messy play, curious minds and little hands building big futures!

15/10/2026

WHO IS GOING TO STAND UP FOR EARLY YEARS EDUCATORS?

We are expected to be everything for everyone. To care, teach, nurture, document, manage, advocate and support children and families through some of the most important years of their lives. We provide a vital service that benefits not just children and families, but Irish society as a whole.
Yet this essential profession continues to be built on inadequate funding, poor wages and the goodwill of the very people who make it work.
For decades, successive governments have relied on early years educators to prop up a broken system. We are expected to deliver high-quality early childhood education and care, support children experiencing disadvantage, provide early intervention and give every child the best possible start in life, while struggling to earn a wage that reflects our qualifications, experience, responsibility and professional expertise.
And when we demand better, we are told that the Government is not our employer. That is a cop-out, not an answer.
The Government may not sign our payslips, but it is our major funder. It designs the funding model, determines the rules, controls significant aspects of how services operate and decides how much public money goes into the sector. It cannot exercise that level of control over our profession and then wash its hands of responsibility for the consequences.
The market-driven model, Core Funding and ERO have not delivered the sustainable services or professional pay structures our sector needs. We cannot keep patching up a fundamentally flawed system while educators leave, services struggle to survive and families lose access to places.
We need a complete reboot, a move away from the market model and back towards direct staffing grants and nationally funded professional payscales that recognise qualifications, experience and responsibility.
Early years educators are not an optional extra. We are the backbone of ECEC. Without us, there are no services, no early intervention, no consistent support for families and no foundation on which children can thrive.
In February 2020, Together for Early Years showed what was possible when our profession came together to demand change. We need that collective voice again. We must stop being divided by the constant disputes between employers and employees over an inadequate pot of funding and hold the Government and Department accountable for the system they created and continue to fund.
Our dedication should never be used as a substitute for proper investment. Our goodwill should not subsidise the State's obligations to children and families. And our wages should not be the price paid for keeping this broken model afloat.
Early childhood education and care is an investment in Ireland's children, families, workforce and future. It is time our Government funded it accordingly and treated the professionals who deliver it with the respect they deserve.
We cannot keep asking educators to carry a system that refuses to carry them.

23/09/2026

Men in childcare are at in Urlingford Community today give career advice on Early Childhood Education and Care

20/09/2026

Another day, another stark reminder of the reality facing families across the country, particularly in rural communities. ​Let’s call this what it is: not an accident, but the predictable consequence of decades of systemic underfunding, short-term fixes, and bad government policies that have treated essential public infrastructure and early childhood care as an afterthought. Year after year, successive governments have failed to properly resource the sector or support providers, educators and parents, leaving local communities high and dry. ​Until real, long-term political will is found to fix these foundational cracks, working families and rural Ireland will continue to pay the price.

In the 2026 Rural Ireland Thinks survey, 63% of respondents said the cost of childcare is an impediment to having children — up from 55% in 2024 when the survey was last taken

08/09/2026

This article should concern everyone working in ECEC. Whether the figure is 17% or 17.4%, the reality is the same, far too many young children and families are living in poverty.
The ESRI figures show just how significant the impact of housing costs is, particularly for families with children aged 0 to 5
These aren't just statistics, they're the children and families we see every day. If we are serious about tackling inequality, we need to invest in children before they reach school, properly resource ECEC and ensure programmes like Equal Start reach the children who need them most.

Social protection minister Dara Calleary said he believes a second tier child benefit should be introduced, but it will not be introduced this year.

04/09/2026

It’s welcome that the Government is investing in Equal Start, but the pace and scale of delivery deserve serious scrutiny. The Government’s own Child Guarantee report acknowledges significant inequalities in ECEC access, particularly for children under three experiencing poverty and social exclusion. Equal Start was launched in 2024, yet full implementation is not expected until 2028. Four years is an eternity in the life of a young child. These are our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, not a policy programme that can simply be left to mature at Government speed. Reducing fees for everyone may make for a good political headline, but it cannot come at the expense of properly funding targeted supports, quality ECEC, staffing and access for the children who need them most. The real measure of progress isn't how much money has been announced or how many initiatives have been launched. It is whether a child experiencing poverty, homelessness, disability or marginalisation can actually access and fully participate in quality ECEC.

Our youngest children shouldn't have to wait until 2028 for Government to catch up with their needs.

Ireland's second European Child Guarantee progress report has been published by Minister for Children, Disability and Equality Norma Foley - TD.

The European Child Guarantee is an EU initiative that seeks to ensure children at risk of poverty or social exclusion have access to key services such as early childhood learning and care, healthcare, housing, school-based education, and healthy school meals.

The report sets out Ireland's progress for the period spanning 2024 - February 2026.

Read our press release:
https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/press-releases/irelands-second-european-child-guarantee-progress-report-published/

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

Children, particularly boys, need to see positive male role models in ECEC environments.
​A great read from the Independent Education Union highlighting the crucial role male educators play in early childhood education and the systemic changes needed (from pay equity to tackling stigma) to bring more men into the sector.

Men make up only a fraction of the early childhood education workforce, but they can have a positive impact on the children they educate.

04/09/2026

This article highlights the very real fears many male educators now carry when working in early childhood education. While safeguarding children must always come first, many men worry that everyday caring interactions can be misinterpreted, leaving them feeling vulnerable simply for doing their job.
We need a sector that protects children while also supporting and valuing the dedicated male educators who play such an important role in children's lives. It's an important read and an important conversation for everyone in Early Childhood Education and Care.

Horrific allegations against a former childcare worker have sparked fears innocent male educators could be driven from the industry.

04/09/2026

More fathers in Japan are taking time off to care for their children, but a large gap remains between men and women in how long they stay on leave.