FOR IRELAND

Run an Irish crèche on euros. Built for Tusla, Aistear, ECCE and NCS.

Most childcare software is UK-built and bolts ROI on as an afterthought — Sterling, EYFS-only, Ofsted-named everywhere. ParentLink's 5-nation engine handles Ireland as a first-class jurisdiction: €-billing, Tusla regulator copy, Aistear curriculum, ECCE universal preschool + NCS per-hour subsidy tracking, Garda Vetting staff records.

Try free for 14 days See pricing

Tusla — School Age & Day Care Regs Aistear — early-years framework ECCE + NCS — funded entitlements Garda Vetting — staff records Eircode + +353 ready

TUSLA INSPECTION-READY

The regulator copy, ratios and snapshot are Tusla — not Ofsted.

Pick Republic of Ireland at signup and every regulator-aware screen reads “Tusla” instead of “Ofsted”. The inspection-readiness snapshot pulls from the School Age Childcare Regulations and the Early Years Services Regulations — the same evidence pack a Tusla inspector asks for, generated in seconds.

Tusla snapshot view

One-click "show me everything a Tusla inspector might ask for" report. Includes compliance summary, last 12 months of incidents, safeguarding logs filtered by date, signed care plans.

Tusla ratios by age

1:3 under 1, 1:5 aged 1–3, 1:8 aged 3–6, 1:12 school-age — the defaults the live ratio chip uses. Your service can set its own where its registration differs.

Care plans + consents

Per-child care plans with renewal reminders. Consent forms for photo use, outings, medication — signed digitally, stored against the audit log.

Incident + safeguarding logs

Incident records with parent sign-off. Safeguarding categorisation filterable by date range. Every change is written to the audit log, kept for 24 months.

AISTEAR — NOT EYFS

The early-years journal speaks Aistear, not EYFS.

The learning journal picker, observation tags, and progress-report templates use Aistear's four themes (Well-being / Identity and Belonging / Communicating / Exploring and Thinking) and their associated aims. Pick Ireland at signup and EYFS disappears — your team writes against the framework Tusla actually inspects against.

Aistear-themed observations

Each observation tagged against an Aistear theme + aim. Children's journals roll up to a per-theme progress summary the team uses for parent meetings.

Aistear progress reports

Termly reports grouped by Aistear theme. Customise the template per setting; share with parents via the parent app or PDF.

Curriculum picker auto-fills

Pick Ireland and Aistear is pre-selected. You can still operate multi-curriculum (e.g. a border crèche serving NI families) by ticking "multi-country mode".

EY age limit = 6, not 5

ROI early-years regulation applies to age 6 (not 5 like the UK). Ratio tables, school-age cutoffs and journal scoping all honour the Irish age boundary automatically.

ECCE + NCS

Universal preschool AND per-hour subsidies, tracked end-to-end.

ECCE (3h/day × 38 weeks) caps hours like English 15h. NCS is different — it's a per-hour subsidy from the Department of Children, not an hours cap. The funding engine handles both: ECCE deducts funded hours from billable hours, NCS reduces the per-hour rate. Per-child YTD usage and remaining entitlement visible on the child profile.

ECCE Universal

3h/day × 5 days × 38 weeks = 570h/year for children aged 2 years 8 months to 5 years 6 months. Funding engine caps weekly hours and emits a funded-hours line on the parent invoice.

NCS Universal + Sponsor

National Childcare Scheme subsidy reduces the per-hour billable rate. Universal rate available for every child under 15; Sponsor rate means-tested. Tracked per child + auto-applied to weekly billing.

YTD usage + renewals

Child profile shows ECCE hours used vs entitlement YTD, plus the NCS rate band currently applied. Worklist flags ECCE entitlements expiring soon (children ageing out) and NCS award letters approaching renewal.

Funded hours on invoices

Parent invoices show funded hours separately from billable hours so the subsidy is visible. Same line items appear on the per-parent statement and the Xero / Sage export.

EUROS + IRISH IDENTITY

€ everywhere, Eircode + +353 ready, NCS subsidy applied.

Currency, postcodes, phone formatting, regulator labels and curriculum framework all switch together when you pick Ireland. No mixed £/€ amounts on the dashboard, no “please enter a UK postcode” validation rejecting a Dublin signup.

€

Euro billing everywhere

Every monetary field on every screen formats as €. Invoice templates, parent statements, accounts exports, financial dashboard, late-pickup charges — all €.

Eircode validation

Address fields validate against Eircode format (e.g. D02 X285) — not just UK postcode shape. Saves time for staff entering parent details, plus the audit log keeps the normalised format.

+353 phone formatting

Parent + emergency-contact phone fields format Irish numbers per the +353 convention. SMS gateway dials correctly — no mangled "07..." numbers misrouted to UK carriers.

Euro billing + card payments

Invoices in euros, and ROI parents pay by card in euros through Stripe at standard EEA rates (typically 1.5% + €0.25), with the same webhook-verified reconciliation as the UK setup. SEPA Direct Debit is not available yet.

Garda Vetting tracking

Staff records track Garda Vetting reference + expiry. Compliance timeline card on dashboard flags lapses 60 days out. Worklist categorises by “missing”, “expired”, “due soon”.

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Tusla as the regulator label

Every screen that previously named “Ofsted” on a UK install names “Tusla” here — audit log, inspection snapshot, parent communications, internal reports.

BORDER-AREA SUPPORT

A Donegal crèche taking NI families? Multi-country mode.

Border-area settings often have a mix of ROI and NI families, sometimes using different curriculum frameworks for different children. The multi-country toggle in Settings → Profile shows BOTH Aistear and NIPC frameworks in the picker, so you can stamp a child against whichever framework their funder requires.

Multi-country mode

Tick “Operates in multiple countries” in Settings → Profile. The curriculum picker stops filtering and shows all 5 nations' frameworks. Each child gets stamped against whichever framework their family qualifies under.

AccessNI alongside Garda

Staff vetting can track BOTH AccessNI (for NI) and Garda Vetting (for ROI) if the setting takes both. Worklist surfaces lapses per scheme.

£ and € on the same nursery

A multi-country setting bills in the home currency of its primary jurisdiction. Cross-border parents pay in that currency — no mixed-currency invoices to reconcile.

FAQ

The questions Irish crèche owners actually ask.

Is ParentLink Irish-owned?

No — ParentLink is UK-built, but Ireland is a first-class jurisdiction in the product, not an afterthought. Five-nation support shipped July 2026 covers England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland with equal regulator + framework + currency depth.

Where is our data hosted — is it GDPR-compliant for ROI?

Your data is hosted in the UK (London). The UK holds an EU data-adequacy decision, and UK GDPR is functionally identical to EU GDPR — it was copied across from the EU regulation at Brexit — and the EU recognises the UK's protection as adequate, so an ROI nursery can keep its data here lawfully without extra safeguards. A Data Processing Agreement is available on request for settings that need one in writing.

Can I switch a nursery's jurisdiction after signup?

Yes — Settings → Profile has a country picker. Changing it swaps the curriculum framework, currency symbol, ratio template, regulator labels and funded-entitlement options to match. Existing data isn't lost; the per-child journal entries just re-tag against the new framework.

ECCE — how is it tracked?

Set ECCE as the child's funded entitlement and the engine deducts 15h/wk (term-time) or 11.4h/wk (stretched) from billable hours. Per-child YTD usage visible on the child profile; renewal reminders fire when the child is about to age out of ECCE eligibility (5y 6m).

NCS — universal vs sponsor?

Both supported. Universal NCS reduces the per-hour rate by a fixed amount per all-under-15 children. Sponsor NCS is means-tested and the subsidy rate varies. Stamp the child with whichever band their NCS award letter specifies and the billing engine applies it automatically.

Garda Vetting — can I store the certificate?

Reference number + expiry date are tracked. We don't store the certificate PDF itself by default (admin-only document storage available on Pro tier if you want to keep certified PDFs alongside staff records). Expiry alerts surface at 60 days.

Pricing — is it in €?

Our /pricing page is shown in £, and that's the list price. Euro invoicing is available on request — email billing@parentlinkeducation.co.uk and we'll confirm the current € equivalent (at conversion rates that track the £ price) for your procurement paperwork.

Is there an Irish support contact?

Email hello@parentlinkeducation.co.uk and you'll get a UK-based reply during business hours. We don't yet have a dedicated Irish phone line — if you need synchronous support, schedule a 30-min call via the email reply.

Free for 15 children. ECCE + NCS handled out of the box.

Sign up takes two minutes. Pick “Republic of Ireland” at signup and every screen reads Tusla, Aistear, ECCE — and bills in €.

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