Pre-school Education

  • Public childcare system initially at an affordable cost and, eventually, for free. Lifelong learning should be offered to children as early as possible. To make this a reality People Before Profit would move towards a National Childcare Service based on the Swedish model. In place of the current subvention to privately owned crèches, we would transition to a publicly owned and funded childcare system. The current private system should be integrated into this new structure with parents paying a contribution fee of 3% of their income capped at €120/month for high income earners.
  • Childcare workers should be guaranteed decent wages and full access to training and re-training. The average wage of a childcare assistant is less than €11 an hour. This is despite that fact that these employees have spent years in professional training. Low wages contributes to low morale and has a detrimental effect on education.
  • Introduce 12 months paid parental leave, to be divided between the parents at their own discretion – paid in full by the employer. Women are entitled to 26 weeks’ maternity leave together with 16 weeks’ additional unpaid maternity leave. There is only two weeks paternity leave. Private employers are not obliged to make up the difference between what the state pays out in social insurance and a workers normal wage. People Before Profit wants longer parental leave to allow families to establish the routines that become essential later in life.

Primary Education

Ireland does not have a publicly owned primary school system. Instead 95% of primary schools are owned and managed by the Catholic Church – and funded mainly from the public purse. One result is an excessive amount of time spent on religious instruction, particularly in First Class, which coincides with Holy Communion.

Primary schools are also under-funded. Classrooms are not equipped to modern standards and most schools do not have science laboratories. There is a greater diversity in second level education, but there is still a high degree of church control and significant underfunding.