PDs want childminders to get €8,000 tax relief
Launching the second half of the party’s childcare strategy, markedly different in tone to Fianna Fáil’s, the junior Government partner said its five-point plan would reduce costs for parents and create more places.
Chief among their proposals is the PDs’ desire to regularise the situation of childminders in the home.
Finance Minister Brian Cowen is expected to unveil a comprehensive childcare package in the next budget.
The issue - which came to prominence in the Meath and North Kildare by-elections - was also discussed at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting in Cavan last month.
FF thinking is believed to be influenced by the National Economic and Social Forum which, among other things, has recommended extended maternity leave and free pre-school for three-year-olds.
A Cabinet sub-committee has been established to examine the issue and hear proposals from each party. Tánaiste Mary Harney yesterday said it was a complex and multifaceted area with was no easy solution.
A PD spokesperson said the conference was not an attempt by the party to assert its independence.
The spokesperson said this issue did not have the same urgency when the Programme for Government was agreed in 2002.
Each Coalition party, she said, was formulating its own policy but the Cabinet would ultimately decide the final package. She said PD Senator John Minihan was the first to come up with comprehensive proposals to address the shortfalls in childcare services.
Mr Minihan said a childminder should be allowed to care for the international norm of five children in their own home, compared to the three stipulated under Irish law.
He called for tax relief of €8,000 per year for childminders - the equivalent of €650 per month.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the Coalition was spending €80m a year on childcare and had created 35,000 extra places since 1997.
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