€20,580 a year on childcare sums up what's wrong with this country

The scale of the vice around the squeezed middle has been laid bare

Some parents are paying over €20,000 a year for childcare.

EVERY now and then, amid all of the bluff and bluster, Irish radio phone-ins can crystallise public mood.

Nowhere was this more evident this week than when a woman named Frankie called the RTÉ Today post-budget phone show. The long-running tradition gives the public a chance to ask questions about what was and wasn’t included in the previous day’s budget.