Childcare crisis ‘must be tackled’

A MAJOR shortage of proper childcare is still the biggest barrier to women returning to work or education, a survey has revealed.

More than 76,000 welfare dependent single mothers cannot afford proper quality childcare, according to their support group An Cosán.

This is because single parents on welfare only get €144 a week and the average weekly cost of private childcare is at least €200 a week, An Cosán co-founder Katherine Zappone said.

"It's time this government woke up to its responsibility to single parents and addressed the childcare crisis by increasing the single parent's allowance to at least €200 a week by 2005," Dr Zappone said.

An Cosán co-founder also accused the Government of doing next to nothing to provide affordable childcare.

Back in December 2000 Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy gave a commitment that he would help parents pay for childcare by giving an extra 1.27 billion to child benefit over three years.

But Mr McCreevy failed to deliver the final part of that pledge in the last Budget and provide the outstanding €423 million.

Instead, he allocated just €105 million to child benefit because of what he called financial constraints.

Dr Zappone also accused the Government of falling behind its commitment to increase social welfare payments within the Programme for Government and the Anti-Poverty Strategy.

A survey of 6,000 single parents who use the An Cosán centre has found proper childcare is the biggest barrier to them getting a job and improving their education.

In west Tallaght, about 40% of children are being raised by single parents the majority of whom are women.

In the same area there are less than 200 childcare places available outside the expensive privately run centres and very few run on a full-time basis.

These women and their children face multiple disadvantage of income inadequacy, poor housing, educational disadvantage and lack of support from partners, Dr Zappone said.

Responding to An Cosán's call for single parent's allowance to be increased to €200 a week, a social welfare department spokesman said no decision could be made on this until the next Budget.

But he pointed out that single parents are not penalised for taking up part-time work and can earn up to €146 extra a week without having their benefits cut.

Meanwhile, the Citizen Information Call Centre (CICC) revealed yesterday that almost a third of their calls dealt with cases of discrimination against women in the workplace.

These included cases where women were denied their entitlements under the Maternity Protection Act to take paid time out, or to attend post and ante natal visits, CICC spokeswoman Judy Bamford said.

Women also complained about employers making it difficult for them to get their holiday rights while on maternity leave or to even take parental leave.

"Many employers are unaware that it is against the law to dismiss a woman for any issue connected with pregnancy."