Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Bruton for moving this amendment, which is very important. The amendment is about trying to give young families a choice in respect of whether they want to stay in the workforce or take a year or two out of it. That choice is not available to them at the moment. As Deputy Bruton said, there is a penalty of approximately €6,000 for coming out of the workforce. It is a very reasoned and fair amendment in respect of the home carers' tax credit.

As Deputy Bruton said, it is only one small element of it. We need to look at our tax code with a greater focus on children rather than the traditional way we have looked at it. There is a lack of support in respect of child care. We know about the debacle that happened over the past couple of months and will happen again at the back end of this year in respect of funding for the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith's Department.

The objective behind the home carers' tax credit was to try to combat the financial inequality created through individualisation. The difficulty is that this particular threshold has not kept in line with wage increases or increases in inflation. It will not have a significant impact on the overall tax code but will have a direct impact on families. It is an amendment that sets the Government and the Oireachtas in a direction where we want to focus on children and on supporting them in the best way possible, regardless of the make-up of their families.

In many cases, the cost of child care is equivalent to the cost of a mortgage. I know from personal experience about the cost of child care and the drain it puts on many families. I urge the Minister to accept this amendment as a small step to addressing the inequality within the system.

See this speech in context