A GROUNDBREAKING study is to examine the reasons behind some of the fundamental changes in the structure of Irish families since the 1970s.

Over 85% of people believe fathers should be legally entitled to paternity leave to play a vital role in the care of newborn babies, a new survey revealed today.

Dr Margret Fine-Davis, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies at Trinity College Dublin, gives her views on the Irish Examiner/Lansdowne Market Research National Childcare Survey in a Q&A with Catherine Shanahan.

IT'S limiting family size, forcing women to quit work and turning grand-parents into unpaid childminders - the first national newspaper poll on childcare shows it has become a major election issue.