Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

5 o’clock

As with the previous government, every time the issue of child care costs is raised the Government trots out the subject of the free preschool year. That scheme benefits parents who have children from the ages of three to five. Unfortunately it does not benefit anybody else. Children need care for more than 61 weeks of their childhood. The scheme offers to cover three hours child care per day, so if a parent is working, he or she must still pay for the remainder of the day's care. There is a reason child care costs in Ireland are so high. It is because the State spends only one fifth of the OECD recommendation of 1% of GDP to be spent on child care. Ireland spends 0.2% of GDP. Only the UK is worse for child care costs than Ireland - obviously we have learned from them - and even the United States has cheaper child care costs. Ireland is the worst in Europe for child care costs. An Irish family with young children pays an average of 34% of their household income on child care. In Europe it is less than 17%. When one considers the cost of rent and mortgages right now, there are people who are absolutely crippled in paying for huge rent and child care. This is unsustainable.

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