Calls for €70 per child per week allowance for childcare

UNIONS and business group IBEC are to ask the Government to provide budget funding of €70 a week per child towards the childcare costs of 140,000 children.

An unprecedented agreement between IBEC and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) calls for the financial support to be given through a voucher system to parents with more than one child in childcare.

The proposal, which will be formally unveiled next week, would have a direct value to working parents of between €280 and €300 a month.