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.