Childcare providers have been warned that they won't be insured if they contract COVID-19 in the homes of frontline staff.
Under a new Government scheme, workers are to start providing childcare in the home for 5,000 essential healthcare workers from May 18th.
However this morning childcare providers were informed by their insurance broker that if they take part, a COVID-19 exclusion would be applied to their cover.
The Department of Children and Youth Affairs was asked to indemnify workers who took part in the scheme, but said it wasn't in a position to do so.
Chairperson of the Association of Childhood Professionals Marian Quinn said:
"We had asked the department about indemnifying the providers and the employees, so that risk is taken away from providers.
"That wasn't an option for the department.
"We also asked if the department would look at taking on the employer's roles and leave the middleman out of this."
