Ineffective childcare subsidies are harming careers, study reveals

GOVERNMENT childcare subsidies are ineffective and the careers of working parents are suffering, a new study reveals.

The TNS MRBI survey of just over 1,000 adults also found that 6% of the working population (about two million) are using childcare services at a cost of around €1.1 billion a year.

It found that almost 30% of working parents who use paid childcare are paying around €482 a month for a childcare place.

The annual childcare cost of €1.1bn was arrived at using the average monthly spend and the number of workers using paid childcare services.

Orla O’Connor of the National Woman’s Council (NWC) said the study conducted by Neurofen for Children showed that the €1,000 subsidy was ineffective.

And, she stressed, the children’s allowance was meant to be spent on the cost of rearing a child, not on childcare.

“This Government seems to think that it dealt with the childcare issue when, clearly, it has not and it is parents who are telling us that,” said Ms O’Connor, NWC’s head of policy.

And, she said, Government members would discover how unhappy working parents were with the childcare situation when they went looking for votes in the general election.

The NWC has been calling for childcare to be subsidised by the State for a number of years now. Britain, France and Denmark have all introduced subsidisation schemes.

The TNS MRBI survey, conducted in July, also found that over one-third of working parents had taken around five days off work to care for a sick or injured child in the previous 12 months.

It found more working mothers (44%) than working fathers (27%) took time off to look after an ill child. Women also took around seven days a year to look after a sick child, almost double that taken by men.

And more than one-third of parents who took time off work to care for a sick child said some of the leave taken was unpaid.

The study calculated that the unpaid leave represented a potential further economic burden of about €47.6 million to working parents.

It also found that 16% of parents admitted to taking their child to childcare knowing that they were unwell but had no alternative childcare choice.

When asked about their attitude to employment, 45% of working parents felt it was difficult for those with young children to progress in their jobs and 64% agreed that work nearly came second to parental duties.

A third admitted they were not interested in being promoted and 45% said they are hoping to cut back their working hours over the coming years.