Childcare plan is about boosting workforce not children or society

SO NOW I’ve read the whole thing and I know where we’re at. Our Government is proposing to further tip the balance against families who care for their own children by pricing them out of the market, writes Victoria White.

The inter-departmental working group on childcare which was given five months to map out future investment in childcare and reported last week, is proposing subsidised centre-based care for children from babyhood if both their parents — or their one lone parent — is working outside the home, in education or training.

Children who are cared for by one parent at home will not qualify for this “targeted” childcare unless they have the “highest level of need”. The majority of Irish families who lose one income when they keep one parent at home will now face, on top of tax individualisation, steeper competition for resources and deeper economic deprivation compared with double-income families with subsidised care.