Childcare services in Waterford need more capital investment to meet demand for places, according to a childcare provider.

Parents are reporting difficulty in accessing afterschool places in the city.

New regulations coming into force in August mean all facilities will need a staff to pupil ratio of 1 to 12.

Colette Colfer says she couldn’t find a place for her son who turns nine in September.

“I was trying to get him into a place for September. I phoned up seven places around Waterford who do after-school programmes.

“They had waiting lists ranging from 140 to 20.

“There’s a crisis in Waterford in terms of afterschool provision.

She added that parents are beginning to panic.

“The waiting lists are so massive, it’s really, really difficult to find place for kids for after school.

Colette Colfer says there’s brilliant facilities in Waterford but there’s not enough of them.

“I think there’s a lack of providers and I think there’s huge demand.

“There’s pressure on places that do childcare because they have to balance between after-school care and a full day creche.”

Majella Cantwell is manager of the Waterford Childcare Centre, she says they have waiting lists at all levels.

“We have children waiting to come into all of our playrooms, right through.

“The challenge is that where you have children already in attendance who are aged 1, 2 and 3, unless those children leave it’s very hard to take in new children with those ages into your centre.

“The new one for us is we’ve reached capacity in our school-age club and that’s a growing area that we need to plan for.”

Majella Cantwell added that they “have a self-generated waiting list for children who are moving into primary schools. They will come back to us now.

“We have about a dozen waiting to come into the school-age club from the ages of four right up to the seven.

She says more funding will be required to create more childcare spaces.

“The popularity of childcare and the need for childcare and quality school-age care – it has to be a quality service for all children.

The funding factor is of paramount importance, capital expenditure will be needed to develop facilities.