Dr. Tom McDonnell:

NERI is doing an econometric study on gender pay gaps and, obviously, childcare costs and the impact of policies is part of that. Hopefully, we will have that research out by the end of this year or early next year, looking at the specific reason for gender pay gaps. It is a related point.

In terms of the Deputy's point on sharing, I completely agree and I would echo what Social Justice Ireland has stated. One of the things that is stark in the Irish data is that, while we all know about the costs, female labour force participation in Ireland trails very badly behind the rates in Nordic and other northern and western European economies. What we effectively do is cut off women's careers while they are in their prime, which leads to gender pay gaps and leads to lower labour force participation and lower levels of confidence. Having a fairer burden, if "burden" is the word, is obviously a progressive policy but, in the long run, it would also lead to higher employment rates across the economy. Therefore, not making some of these investments in childcare should be considered as a false economy because it takes people out of the economy, which means lower tax receipts and lower spending in the economy.

There is, of course, the issue of the affordability and quality of childcare. These are not directly related to the point the Deputy is making but it is a point NERI made a couple of years ago, as did Social Justice Ireland. I referred earlier to an economy being able to grow 4% to 4.5% a year but, in fact, that can be changed either up or down through policies. A policy that increases labour force participation and the employment rate pushes that up and allows us to have a permanently higher level of public spending. Therefore, there are macroeconomic issues as well.