80% of people in Ireland believe that young children have a right to early years care and education

Early Childhood Ireland publishes the fifth national Barometer which underlines overwhelming public support for the early years sector

Early Childhood Ireland, the leading organisation in the early years sector, has today (17.2.22) published its fifth annual ‘Barometer’ which finds that 80% of people in Ireland believe that children have a right to free, high quality and accessible early years care and education. Three-quarters of people in Ireland (75%) believe that, like primary school education, early years care and education should be free. This represents a steep rise in support for publicly-funded provision – the equivalent figure in the 2021 Barometer was 61%.

Early Childhood Ireland’s Barometer is an annual opinion poll conducted nationwide by RED C to gauge public attitudes to early years care and education.

“The vast majority of people in Ireland (80%) agree that children have a right to early years provision, just as they have a right to primary school education, underlining the overwhelming public recognition of the value and importance of our sector. Throughout the pandemic, early years and after-school settings and childminders have provided an invaluable service to children and families.  In this year’s Barometer, our fifth, we are seeing that the pandemic has heightened awareness among the public of just how important quality early years care and education is,” said Frances Byrne, Director of Policy at Early Childhood Ireland.

In addition to measuring public sentiment on children’s right to high-quality early years services, the Barometer also shows strong support for the sector’s workforce. Just under three-quarters of respondents (73%) agree that staff who work directly with children and are as qualified as other professionals such as nurses and teachers should have terms and conditions which reflect this.

Ireland is one of Europe’s lowest investors in early years services. 72% of people here believe that we should significantly increase investment in line with international benchmarks. This view is held across all demographics, regions and age groups, including among those who don’t have children of their own.

Early Childhood Ireland’s 2022 Barometer contains a number of findings on questions we have been polling since 2018 including:

• 71% of people believe that the education of children under 5 is as important as the education of children over 5, an increase of 9% from the 2021 result (62%).
• 62% of adults believe parents should only pay toward childcare in line with their overall income. There is broad support for this across all regions.
• 63% believe parents should be financially supported to stay at home with their child for the first 12 months of the child’s life. There was a notable gender divide in responses to this statement, with 71% of women in agreement, compared to 56% of men.

“Looking at the results over five years, the consistent support across age, region and other demographics for early years care and education is very heartening. As a membership organisation, we know how hard providers across the country work to provide essential services and supports to children and families. We are delighted to see public recognition and support for Early Childhood Ireland’s ambition that every young child in Ireland is thriving in centre-based & childminding settings,” said Frances Byrne.