Parents rely on unpaid relatives to mind children

ALMOST one in three families rely on unpaid relatives to mind their young children, figures published yesterday show.

More than 40% of all families with pre-school children and around 25% of families with primary school children now use some form of childcare during normal working hours.

The survey of 352,800 families, the first of its type to be conducted by the Central Statistics Office, also found that weekly childcare costs varied from 79.42 in the border region to 118.96 in Dublin.

Almost 23,000 families relied on unpaid relatives to mind pre-school children while more than 31,000 relied on them to mind school-going children. More than 45% of families said they were not availing of desired alternatives due to financial reasons.

The study, part of the CSO's National Household Survey over the last quarter of 2002, also shows that lone parents were more reliant on unpaid relatives.

Almost 20,000 families employed a paid carer while 15,800 mainly relied on a creche/montessori for school- going children. For school-going children, 19,700 families used a paid carer while less than 4,000 used a creche.

Around 8,000 families paid a relative to mind their pre-school children and a similar number did so in the case of school-going children. Most Dublin families used a creche or montessori while mostthe majority of families in other parts of the country employed a paid carer.

Just under 20% (32,400) of families with pre-school children said they would welcome the availability of alternative childcare arrangements.

Almost half said they would like a creche or montessori but preferably work-based creches and a further 20% said they would prefer to have a paid carer. Just over one in 10 parents said they would prefer to mind their children themselves instead of their existing arrangements.

ICTU's equality officer, Esther Lynch, said people on or even above the minimum wage of around 240 a week were having to rely on their unpaid relatives to raise their children.

"Our members are very clear in what they want. They want employers to provide creches and the Government to give them tax relief on their childcare costs," she said.

The National Women's Council's policy manager Orla O'Donnell said the childminding situation demonstrated the lack of Government support for working parents.

"What the Government is putting into childcare is clearly not meeting the needs of working parents," said Ms O'Donnell. "Compared to other European countries Irish people are spending 20% of their income on childcare well above the EU average," she pointed out.

PD TD Fiona O'Malley said it was time to end the bureaucratic barriers in childcare because the costs involved were becoming impossible for parents.