In Denmark, you can just plug your children in [to the heavily subsidised childcare and education system] when they are 10 months old and you can pick them up when they are 18. From the start, it's all laid on for you. In Ireland, you have to patch it all together yourself. Everyone has to have a unique solution to their children's care.
For that price, you could drop them in at 7.30am and pick them up at 5, all meals and everything else included. It was a flat rate - you might have had them in for a much shorter day, it didn't matter - but it was very reasonable, especially when I think of the sort of money that people back home had to pay.
Those in lower-paid jobs would pay much less than that again and, from my understanding, a lot of people weren't paying anything. It is a stark contrast to the often crippling costs of childcare in Ireland.
A survey in April of 217 creches in Ireland revealed that parents living in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown are being charged at least €1,000 per child each month, with prices ranging.
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