CORI urges wider definition of wealth

The Conference of Religious of Ireland has called for social and environmental assets to be taken into account when assessing Ireland's national wealth.

In a report published today, the organisation, which represents religious denominations, said Ireland's national accounts should include the value of things like unpaid work and the environment.

It claimed such a move would have helped the Government foresee the current childcare problems.

Spokesman Fr Sean Healy said: "Up to recently, childcare was provided [by parents in the home] without having to be paid for. We didn't value that because nobody actually measured it, we just took it for granted.

"Now that more people are employed in the labour force, we have a new problem. If we had been monitoring that on an on-going basis, we would in fact be in a position where we would have seen that coming and dealt with it much earlier."