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.

Significantly, in the recent glowing report listing Ireland as having the highest quality of life in the world, the lack of childcare facilities was singled out as an issue of concern.

Ironically, this chronic scenario is sure to undermine Government initiatives aimed at convincing both spouses to go out to work. In many instances, grandparents have to provide day-long childcare while couples are in full-time work.

With weekly crèche costs outstripping individual pay rates in many instances, working couples have to fork out a large slice of their combined income to pay for childcare.

In the course of the past year this vexed issue figured high on the lists of demands from several groups. For example ICTU, the umbrella organisation representing trade unions, has called for tax relief to help people meet childcare costs.

Despite the argument that stay-at-home mums would also be entitled to childcare relief, it is incumbent on the Government to address the difficulties facing families, either through individual tax relief or by providing childcare facilities in the workplace for as many people as possible.

Setting an example which the Coalition should emulate, the British Government is preparing to make life a bit easier for young couples with children.

According to Mr Cowen’s counterpart, Chancellor Gordon Browne, employers there will be able to offer staff £50 (€72.42) a week extra for childcare, free of tax and national insurance.

At the same time, childcare tax credits will rise for those on lower and middle incomes, covering up to 80% of costs up to £175 (€253) a week for the first child, rising to £300 (€434) for two or more children.

That imaginative approach to the childcare problem is genuinely inclusive from a social viewpoint.

Under new measures unveiled in Britain, new mothers will be able to spend more time at home with their babies. In addition to a realistic package of financial support, some 3,500 children’s centres will be built in a 10-year childcare strategy.

As generous as it is imaginative, Gordon Browne has given a lead which Brian Cowen should follow.

Much to his credit, many aspects of the first instalment of Mr Cowen’s three year budget-election strategy are highly positive and warrant generous applause. That it represents only a first step in the right direction is emphasised by Fr Sean Healy whose Inchadoney address to Fianna Fáil on the social responsibilities of government has proved to be profoundly influential.

But many people will be deeply disappointed at the failure to remove the burden from working couples unfairly penalised by Ireland’s failure to provide tax relief or childcare facilities for parents with young children.