Parents have been overcharged thousands of euro a year by childcare providers that have hiked fees despite promising to freeze them in exchange for hundreds of millions of euro in public funding, the Department of Children said.One major north Dublin creche franchise said it faced having to pay back more than €116,000, owed to 37 parents, after the department pointed out it had overcharged by €245 a month.Some parents were owed more than €4,000 by Charlie’s Childcare in Bayside, one of 11 branches of a preschool and afterschool service operating across north Dublin. Founders Ronnie Carroll and Elaine Roddy-Carroll also own Isabella’s Childcare in Santry, Sutton and Donabate.There is no suggestion of overcharging at any of the other Charlie’s Childcare branches nor at any branch of Isabella’s childcare.However, many parents at Charlie’s Childcare in Bayside have still not received refunds despite a review telling the creche to take “remedial action” by April. Carroll said he intended to pull the Bayside franchise out of the State’s core funding scheme.Charlie’s Childcare is one of 27 providers deemed to be overcharging parents after promising to freeze fees at 2021 levels. Another 30 providers are being investigated as part of fee reviews. Such reviews, in place since 2024, are initiated if a parent notices they are being overcharged. Despite awarding the childcare sector more than €1.5 billion this year, the Department of Children does not actively investigate fees charged by private providers.In 2022, Charlie’s Childcare signed up to a €221 million national core funding scheme, agreeing to freeze fees at 2021 levels in exchange for increased public funding. It was projected to receive €1.3 million in funding for six childcare services between last year and this year, representing a 300 per cent increase since the scheme was introduced. Charlie’s Childcare charged parents €953 a month at Bayside in 2021. By 2024, parents noticed they were being charged €1,198 a month, with at least three families querying this. One family formally complained to the Fingal County Childcare Committee, which started a fee review.“Out of nowhere, in September 2024, this creche increased the monthly preschool fee for my younger child by €245,” the woman said. “I repeatedly and politely asked the creche to explain the increase, but I never received an answer.”In January, the review found “an increase in the fees charged which is in breach of core funding”. It told Charlie’s Childcare to “refund any parents that were overcharged since September 2024 to the current date of fee correction”.Charlie’s Childcare wrote to affected parents in February, but did not apologise. The email from the chief operating officer said its fees were “not fully aligned with core funding requirements” and that families would be contacted individually to confirm “the refund due”. It said it would likely withdraw from core funding, raising fees for parents.It attempted to charge parents a “backdated invoice for food provided during this same period”, asking them to opt in to future hot-food charges. The department said it could offer a new hot food add-on, but could not remove a food service already provided.In March, Charlie’s Childcare told parents it “cannot absorb” the refund costs and blamed the complaining family. “Most frustrating for us as a service overall is that this family, who initiated the complaint, is due to leave the service in June and will not be impacted by these changes, whereas the consequences will be felt by families who remain.”It told parents it was formally withdrawing from core funding, but Freedom of Information documents show it did not. It also encouraged parents to complain to Fingal County Council.Carroll and Roddy-Carroll shared an increase of €100,000 in salary and pension contributions between 2023 and 2024, Charlie’s Childcare’s most recent accounts stated. Carroll told the department in February he would not lose or gain by pulling out of core funding, “bar some irate parents emailing in complaining – no doubt some initial bad PR but all which can be handled very easily when the situation is explained”. Carroll, who has since hired a PR firm to represent Charlie’s Childcare, also blamed the complaining family in an email to the review team, claiming most parents felt “utter disgust at a parent taking this course of action against us”.In April, Charlie’s Childcare told the department it had completed all remedial actions and either refunded parents or agreed payment plans. The department contacted it repeatedly between April and June seeking evidence of this, warning its funding could be cut.Carroll told The Irish Times the declaration was only signed because the department would otherwise claw back more than €500,000 in funding. Charlie’s Childcare told The Irish Times it had agreed payment plans, but its chief operations officer’s emails to parents through April and May appealed for patience and acknowledged many were still awaiting responses. It stopped charging some parents fees from April.In April, Carroll wrote to the department, claiming he would pull all 14 of his childcare services out of core funding to protest about the “penalty imposed” on Charlie’s Childcare, but this did not happen. In June, parents were told Charlie’s Childcare was “arranging refunds”. Refunds were issued to some this week, about 36 hours after it received a media query. Charlie’s Childcare said it was “incorrect and disingenuous to link the timing of the payment of refunds to the queries from The Irish Times”.It claimed it did not overcharge parents, but had been “charging them for hot food provided to their children over a two-year period”. It said the Fingal Childcare Committee was aware of its fees.It is a breach of core funding to include food as an additional cost without making it optional. Charlie’s Childcare previously advertised the cost of food as €2 extra a day. To charge parents an additional €245 a month, the cost of providing food would be more than €12 per day.It had told the fee review the 2021 fee-freeze was implemented before it had “the opportunity” to bring its Bayside fees to be in line with other branches. Charlie’s Childcare said the parents of 13 children have declined refunds. Three parents, who represent this group, signed a letter to Minister for Children Norma Foley asking her to intervene. The letter said the withdrawal from core funding “is a direct result of the significant and immediate financial burden of fee-refunds to parents, which have been demanded by your department”.Parent Peter Finn said making Charlie’s Childcare offer refunds ultimately cost parents more. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Peter Finn, one of the signatories, said his family did not want its refund of almost €2,500. He believes their daughter’s monthly bill will rise by €300 from September. Finn said he was happy to pay higher fees from 2024 as their daughter was provided with “quality food”. He said making Charlie’s Childcare offer refunds ultimately cost parents more.“The result they have therefore achieved is the opposite of what the core funding is meant to provide. Now parents are faced with uncertainty, stress and worry,” Finn said.