Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's elaboration on her initial reply, as it is critical that other Departments are engaged.

Indecon believes that a child care amendment to the current family income supplement would be a good policy initiative to encourage unemployed parents back into employment and to assist lower-income parents to remain in employment. It makes the case that any labour market policy initiatives should consider the current employment status of the targeted groups. It also points out that employment-focused child care policy initiatives should be aimed at either encouraging parents to enter the labour market or increasing their working status from part time to full time. These are specific areas of recommendation and the report is most helpful in that regard.

Indecon also strongly recommends that beneficiaries of the incentive should be restricted to tax-compliant and HSE-registered child care providers. It also makes the point, on which I would strongly reflect, that whatever steps are now to be taken in this hugely important area, there must to be monitoring, evaluation and assessment of their impact. After a period of three years a detailed report should be prepared in order to give the full facts as to the success or otherwise of the initiatives involved.

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