Budget failed women on the issue of better child care, says Quinn

This year's Budget was a "setback for women" in that it failed to address the issue of child care or to provide a substantial increase in child benefit, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, has said. "In advance of the Budget it was made clear that investment in child care was crucial in terms of maintaining our economic success," he said.

"For the first time in so long we had employers, trade unions and voluntary organisations singing from the same hymn sheet. However, it seems, no matter how loud these groups sang, the Government was not listening."

He was speaking at a general meeting of the Labour Party Women's Council in Dublin at the weekend.

Mr Quinn also criticised the Government's record on gender equality and said the Parental Leave Act, which came into effect last week, "will be of little value to low-paid workers because it will be unpaid".

"Ireland is one of the last EU countries to introduce parental leave and, in all but four countries where such leave exists, a payment is available. The extent of the payment varies: in Italy it is income-related and in Denmark it is set at 80 per cent of the rate of unemployment benefit. The failure of the Government to put in place a payment is anti-family."

Ms Bernie Malone MEP, the party's European affairs spokeswoman, described IBEC's response to the Act as "outdated and disappointing". She said the Act enshrined into law what the employers' body "has signed up to at EU level".

IBEC had described the Act as "another example of EU rules being forced upon employers". Senator Kathleen O'Meara said the Government's "inaction" on child care would deepen the crisis facing parents who want or have to work. A member of the Joint Oireachtas Sub Committee reviewing the child care issue, she said the priority should be to target funds at the poorest areas and to ensure that all parents, including those at home, are supported.

"Investment in children pays off. Our educated workforce is the key to our economic success, and investment in children in poor families pays off hugely in tackling long-term unemployment and the problems that it brings."

Ms Mary Flynn, chairwoman of the Labour Women's National Council, said: "Despite our current economic boom, the UN recently identified women in Ireland to be among the most impoverished and disadvantaged in the developed world. The Government has failed to address this stark fact and its smug attitude cannot hide the fact that women in Ireland are still facing huge obstacles when it comes to issues such as training, work, education and health care."