Professor Alan Barrett:

No. One reason we have generous child benefit in Ireland was because several years ago there was a discussion about women going to work, child care subsidies and so forth. The argument was should one discriminate against people who choose to stay at home versus those who choose to go to work. Then the question was should child care be subsidised through the income tax system. That became quite controversial because the argument was one could only benefit from it if one was going to work. However, if one chose to stay at home, one could not benefit from it. A child care subsidy which is a direct payment, regardless of whether one is going to work or not, would be somewhat more neutral.

Research was published last week in University College Cork on whether kids who stay at home with their parents do better. Several months ago, the ESRI, using the growing up in Ireland data, did a study on whether there was any difference in the cognitive development of kids in crèches versus those at home. The answer was “No.” In the case of immigrant kids, they actually did better if they had been in crèches. I remember when my colleagues brought this report to my desk, I said of all the ESRI reports, this did more for the guilt consciences of Irish parents than anything else. I am not sure whether we put that on the press release. For every parent putting their kid in a crèche and worried they were doing irreparable damage, the answer from an ESRI study was "No".