Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

This recommendation deals with an issue which is next in line to be addressed. It was correct to build up child benefit to a reasonable level in comparison with that in other countries because it was quite low until approximately ten years ago. It is widely accepted now that the child benefit approach will not deal with child care. The Government will not be in a position to accept the recommendation because the budget has already been introduced and implementing it would prove costly.

The question arises as to how it could be approached. The Senator mentioned a voucher system. That would not be part of the tax system, as it would involve expenditure. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has introduced a working parents' tax credit which, unlike this recommendation, carries an income limit. Following this week's UK budget, it will be of the order of £58,000 sterling. If one adopts the tax credit method, one must decide whether to do so with or without an income limit.

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs has indicated that this matter will be given careful consideration. An interdepartmental group studied it some years ago and that process will be resumed. The new social reality among most young couples with children aged between one and four or five years of age is that both partners work. Only at the extremes of the income scale does one parent stay at home while the other goes out to work.

The tendency was already strong in the late 1990s and will have been reinforced in the past five years. That was one of the reasons behind the individualisation scheme which Fine Gael challenged.