Dr Laura Bambrick: The State's hands-off approach to childcare must end

Ireland has one of the lowest rates of working mothers in the EU27 alongside Italy, Greece and Spain

The cost of childcare for parents in Ireland remains the highest in the EU27. File photo

All European welfare systems were originally built around the assumption that women are full-time caregivers in the home and men earn a wage to support the family.

From the 1950s onwards, this male-breadwinner model of work and family life began to be replaced by social policies that facilitated women as well as men to work outside the home.