An Early Childcare Education provider in Cork says that the new Core Funding model will force the sector to cap their fees without knowing what their costs will be.
The new Core Funding Model was announced by the Department of Children last month and a survey of 1,000 providers by the Federation of Early Childcare Providers found that 56 said their services will not stay open based on the current model.
The 221-million-euro fund is dependent on two main terms - that two thirds of the money will go toward staff wages and that providers must agree not to raise their fees above 2021 levels.
The Federation says the funding model will mean some providers will make a loss or just break even.
John Bowman of BEL Childcare in Douglas told RedFM News that childcare operators are being asked to sign up to the new contracts without knowing their conditions.
"The other issue is the fact that as part of this, we are waiting to hear what comes out of the Labour Court, because we're currently waiting on a legally binding decision on the wages within our sector.
"So we're being asked to look at the core funding when we don't know what our cost base is and we don't know what our wage bill is going to be.
"This is our fear that we're going to be forced to sign up to a deal without ever seeing the contracts that come with the deal.
"We're being expected to sign up to this core funding deal by summer. We don't know what the wage demand is going to be. We don't know what our overheads are going to be. And yet we're being asked to cap fee."
