Katherine Zappone’s childcare plan prices stay-home parents out of market

The argument for the policy is that government should not discriminate between parents in paid work and parents at home, writes Victoria White.

CARING for your own children is bad. Caring for someone else’s children is good. That’s the thrust of the new cash-for-childcare policy under consideration by the Cabinet for inclusion in next month’s budget.

If you use a registered childcare service, you’ll get a subsidy of about €2,000 per year, per child towards the care. If you rear that child yourself, you’ll get nothing.