Childcare provision - Cowen must help parents with costs

AMONG the more glaring omissions from Finance Minister Brian Cowen’s socially oriented Budget was the failure to bring in tax relief measures for the tens of thousands of young couples who are crying out for childcare support.

As a result of their non-inclusion in a package of measures based on the principles of inclusiveness, working spouses across the country will be forced to continue devoting a major slice of their income to pay for childcare facilities which are double the rate people are paying in other European states.

By not supporting them, the Coalition is effectively imposing an extremely heavy burden on families already struggling to pay horrendous mortgage charges in a housing market where the Government stood idly by as prices went through the roof.