‘Parents get the short straw, yet again’

“PARENTS have been ignored again.”

That was the first reaction mother-of-two Aileen Bradshaw had to Budget 2004.

Although she wasn’t surprised the Finance Minister didn’t provide any relief for parents paying out a lot of money for quality childcare, she had hoped that after six other Budgets, Charlie McCreevy would finally recognise the role working parents play in the economy.

Aileen, and her husband Eamonn Nolan are paying 220 a week for both Lottie, who turned aged threejust three weeks ago, and her 13-month-old brother, Seán, to be cared for during the week while they work full-time.

“It is a huge chunk of money to come up with every week she said.

The regional support worker for the National Children’s Nurseries Association had hoped that parents would be given tax relief on childcare costs, capitation grants would be given to childcare providers and greater encouragement would be put in place for employers to introduce family-friendly work policies. However, nothing of these issues were addressed.

Aileen felt that by announcing the decentralisation of departments “everything else would be ignored”.