Childcare funding - Working families need more help

THAT working women should be discriminated against in the workplace because they have young children is a scathing comment on employers and a stinging indictment of a society where attitudes are changing for the worst.

Putting the spotlight on the erosion of family values, today’s Irish Examiner poll shows many women believe that having a child is now an obstacle to promotion at work.

No less disturbing, a survey by Lansdowne Market Research, the first of its kind in Ireland, reveals that over half the country’s pre-school children now spend only four hours a day with their parents because they have to commute such long distances to work.

Up and down the country, beleaguered parents spend over an hour-and-a-quarter on the round trip to childcare, work and back again.

The scale of the problem was further illustrated in the Dáil yesterday in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s response to questions relating to the survey from Labour leader Pat Rabbitte.

Estimating that 800,000 women are now working, double the number of a few years ago, Mr Ahern acknowledged the huge drain on couples who are paying as much on childcare as on their mortgage.

It is clear from the survey that there is an urgent need for realistic financial help towards childcare.

It is unclear, however, whether in next month’s budget the Coalition will introduce tax breaks, tax credits or improved child benefit, a measure gaining broad public support.

Significantly, while the Finnish and Swedish models are being studied, Mr Ahern believes any new measure should not discriminate between parents who stay at home and those in the workplace.

Throwing light on a worrying development, the survey found that one in five full-time working parents were asked about their family plans and childcare arrangements during performance reviews.

For employers to resort to such tactics is discriminatory and a blatant violation of equality law. This practice deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms and must be rooted out.

Revealingly, the survey also shows that more than one in three women (36%) are convinced that having children will harm their careers. This sense of inequity is particularly true for working mothers in Dublin, where more than half the women questioned in the survey agreed that starting a family will hamper their career prospects.

Inexplicably, the same pattern is not replicated in Munster, where one in four working mothers strongly disagree that having children is an obstacle to advancement in the workplace. Only one in 10 working mothers in the province strongly agreed that having a family was an impediment to career enhancement, compared with one in three in Dublin.

While most people are happy with their childcare arrangements, the stark reality, as Mr Ahern concedes, is that many are spending more on childminders than on their mortgage.

Pressure is mounting relentlessly on Government to produce realistic childcare measures sooner rather than later. This explosive issue will face politicians on the doorstep in the run-up to the next general election in 2007.

Despite the fact that the childcare crisis was triggered by Coalition policies aimed at benefiting the economy by encouraging women to work outside the home, the Government has failed to come up with solutions designed to ease the crushing burden on young families.

As evidenced by yesterday’s RTÉ Liveline programme, robust debate has been triggered by the Irish Examiner pool. Mr Ahern should be under no illusion that when he goes to the country, his Government will face informed voters who are demanding meaningful action on the childcare debacle.