'Less than €9 a week - a paltry increase'

EMIR BINIONS is a working mum who pays €275 per week for the convenience of full-time childcare.

For this fee, her two children, Charlie, two, and Emma, four, are fed and cared for from 8.30am to 5.30pm each weekday.

For the 36-year-old sales executive at EC Labels, a family-run business in Waterford City, it is money well spent. The crèche for her children is on the same estate as her place of work, allowing for painless delivery of her children each morning and effortless collection in the evening.