IRISH PARENTS pay more for childcare than most Europeans, while the Government spends less on childcare and early education than any other EU country.
These are the stark findings of a new report published yesterday by the European Commission, which also shows that poor availability of childcare facilities is hurting the careers of Irish women.
A typical Irish family with two working parents and two children under the age of three spends 29.2 per cent of their net income on childcare costs.
Only British families spend a higher percentage of their income (32 per cent) on childcare, while similar families in Belgium, Portugal and Poland all spend less than 5 per cent of their net income on childcare.
The Government is ranked bottom of the EU league table for spending on childcare and early education, investing just 0.2 per cent of national income (GDP) on the services. Denmark, Sweden, Finland and France spend at least 1 per cent of GDP.
Women in the Republic with children under the age of 12 are less likely to be in employment than their counterparts in all EU countries bar the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
Only in Sweden are women's career prospects not hampered by having young children, while in Ireland there is a difference of 20 percentage points between the employment rate of women with children and those without.
The report concludes that there is a direct link between childcare provision and access for parents to employment.
More than six million women aged 25-49 in the EU say they are forced into not working, or can only work part-time, due to family responsibilities.
"We are far from reaching our targets on childcare facilities and need to step up our efforts," said social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla, who said about half a billion euro in EU funding was available to governments to help develop childcare facilities.
The report found many member states fail to provide adequate childcare facilities and meet commitments they made at an EU summit in Barcelona in 2002.
EU leaders signed up to provide childcare for at least a third of children under three years of age and 90 per cent of children between three years and the mandatory school age. Just 18 per cent of under-threes attend childcare in Ireland, while 93 per cent of children over three attend some form of formal childcare, according to the commission's childcare report.
The EU has advised the Government to upgrade childcare facilities in its last two evaluation reports on states' economic policies.
The report is part of a wider package of social measures published by the commission, which also included a proposal to raise the minimum period of maternity leave across the EU to 18 weeks. Irish women are already entitled to 26 weeks' leave.