Childcare opinion poll - Survey poses real challenge to politicians

THE first national newspaper opinion poll conducted for the Irish Examiner by Lansdowne Market Research, which surveyed more than 1,000 parents with children aged up to 14 years, had some startling findings.

The Government and politicians generally will ignore them at their own political peril.

The childcare issue is already limiting the size of families, and affecting women’s role in the workplace. Only a quarter of women return to work outside the home after having a baby. Many of those with two children say they would have to stay at home if they had another child.

This massive loss to the labour force could have devastating long-term consequences for the national economy.

The survey highlights a distinct disillusionment with the Government’s handling of the childcare issue. Even though it encouraged women to return to the workforce, some 84% of the parents surveyed believe the Government has failed to address the issue of proper childcare services, seeing that only 10% of parents believe that childcare is reasonably affordable in this country.

The survey highlights a high level of dependency on family members, such as grandparents, to help out hard-pressed parents unable to meet formal childcare costs, which range from €9,000 per annum in Dublin to €7,000 elsewhere.

Grandparents usually help out by functioning as unpaid child minders. In as many as one in three instances, grandparents are relied upon to look after pre-school children in cases where both parents are working.

In Dublin where children are less likely to be cared for by members of the extended family, just 6% of parents use crèches, but only one in five of those believe this is an ideal care arrangement.

A majority of parents consider full-time parenting as the ideal childcare arrangement. While politicians have been talking about providing more childcare places in crèches and after-school facilities, parents are more concerned with getting financial help to allow them to stay at home to mind their children, or financial assistance to pay a member of their extended family, usually a grandparent.

Childcare ranks as the third most important issue among voters. Working parents and stay-at-home parents agree that the State should provide financial relief. The findings are particularly remarkable in that working-parents and those where one parent remains at home are overwhelmingly in favour of financial relief for each other.

While 90% of couples where one parent is in the home favour extra tax concessions for working parents, 84% of the couples who both work outside the home favour State payments to stay-at-home parents.

Politicians need to recognise that the electorate is essentially demanding extra tax relief for working parents, and payments for stay-at-home parents, or a carer’s allowance for members of the extended family.

Some 46% of the parents favour a 1% increase in the standard rate of income tax to fund the changes, but this poses a real challenge for politicians.

It is one thing to suggest more spending; it is something else to fund that spending. Therein lies the real challenge for the politicians.