Those with young children and living in Dublin wrote about annual childcare costs ranging from €12,000 to €16,000. Parents outside the capital fret about how much would be needed to send their children to college. A lot has happened in Ireland’s economic landscape even since insurer Laya Life published its Cradle to College Cost Index last May. Food, nappies, baby formula, pocket money and rent supports were among the biggest increases in child costs. Carmel Green, a financial services expert at David Kelleher Financial Services in Kanturk, Co Cork, doesn’t think so.

Source: The Irish Times February 24, 2026 08:01 UTC