Professor Dorothy Watson:

It is a major issue and undoubtedly it is behind the figures for inequality and market incomes. We have many zeros in Ireland relative to other European countries. Why are we so high? More of our working age adults are not working, as Mr. Staunton said. In particular, we have a high joblessness rate among lone-parent households, a particularly high-risk group in Ireland. Affordability of child care is undoubtedly an issue in this regard. We also have a high rate of joblessness among those with a disability in Ireland. If more policy effort were focused on that issue there might be some benefits as well.

Let us consider jobless households. Approximately 50% contain either children or adults with a disability. One of the reasons we differ from other European countries is that adults in jobless households are more likely to have children in Ireland compared other European countries. Moreover, they are more likely to have larger numbers of children compared to other European countries. There is a barrier to work associated with children. Child care would be an obvious place to look for an explanation.