The struggle to juggle

Dr Margret Fine-Davis, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies at Trinity College Dublin, gives her views on the Irish Examiner/Lansdowne Market Research National Childcare Survey in a Q&A with Catherine Shanahan.

Q: What are your views on the dependence on grandparents as childminders?

A: It is noticeable that there is a higher satisfaction with childcare among those using grandparents - however, reliance on grandparents is higher in Munster than in Leinster, where childcare is a more significant voting issue. Population and employment are more concentrated in Dublin (Leinster) and therefore childcare is a salient issue for more people.