205 children were seriously injured last year whilst being looked after in childcare facilities, a freedom of information request has revealed. 

Childcare providers are required to contact Tusla if a child dies in their care, picks up an infectious disease, gets seriously injured or goes missing.

Tulsa said many of these serious injuries happen when a child falls over or spills something over themselves. 

Speaking to Newstalk, Barnardos chief executive, Suzanne Connolly, said the figures were worrying: 

“It is concerning that it has happened 205 times because obviously when parents place their children in the care of professionals in an early years service they expect them to come to no harm and have all their needs met,” she said. 

“Children in early years services need to be supervised at all times and when accidents like you described have occurred it is really important that every effort is made to ensure that they don’t occur again.” 

Pre-school birthday party. Image: Kzenon / Alamy Stock Photo

On 12 occasions last year children went missing - although Tusla stressed that could include a child being unaccounted for but remaining on site. 

While 38 childcare facilities had what are called an irregular closure in 2021 - which means they were obliged to close because of an incident in the service. 

Rising cost

Earlier this month Newstalk calculated that the cost of childcare has increased in Dublin by 20% over the past four years. 

The average cost of full time care for a two-month-old toddler in capital is currently €1,276 a month. 

The two next most expensive counties are Wicklow and Cork - where it costs on average €928 a month and €857 a month respectively.

Longford is cheapest with an average cost of €613 per month.

Main image: A boy plays with building blocks and a toy car at the Hainallee daycare centre. Under emergency care rules there are 10 to 12 children a day in the municipal facility. Photo: Bernd Thissen/dpa