Childcare costs - Help for parents is long overdue

COME the next election, the vexed issue of childcare promises to be one of the most prominent issues.

To its cost, that reality was borne out for the Government as Fianna Fáil was decimated in the last local elections.

Chastened by that experience, the administration has asked civil servants to come up with proposals aimed at wooing dissatisfied voters in key urban constituencies.