Shane Ross (Independent)

I will restrict myself to broad principles. The package must be imaginative and cover money, allowances and tax credits. The important point, however, is that women and men have realistic options. At the moment they are almost prisoners of a system which requires them to go to work and pay all their money into a crèche if they have children. They pay such a substantial amount that they have very little spending money left over.

Alternatively they make a decision to stay at home leaving a large quantity of wasted skilled labour in the economy in the form of women who feel obliged to stay at home because it is not worth their while exploiting the labour in which the State has invested so much through their education. There is merit in a system which gives them options and compels employers to give them options to work part-time which Senator White proposes in her Bill.