The initiatives in the Budget designed to address the crisis in childcare fall far short of many people's expectations. After the decision to change the tax band for double-income families came Charlie McCreevy's "Uturn": a tax free allowance of £3,000 for stay-at-home spouses who look after children or other dependents.
Ironically, the maximum gain for a double-income family, £1,320, amounts to a fraction of the average annual childcare bill. The cost of a childminder or creche varies considerably. However, the National Children's Nurseries Association estimates an average of £70 a week per child in a creche.
While the new measures may go some way towards childcare bills, many parents feel they don't go nearly far enough. Other measures introduced to tackle the dearth in provision have also been criticised as inadequate.
Mary Lee Stapleton, national adviser with the National Children's Nurseries Association, says: "There are a couple of useful initiatives, such as the allowances for investment, but it is all far too piecemeal, and it's not going to have the sort of effect we urgently need to tackle the situation. "Tax allowances will attract investors, but these are measures which deal with buildings. At the moment there is an enormous problem getting qualified childcare staff because salaries are so low. You can have all the buildings you want, but you need people working in them.
"In recognition of the value of the work done by childcare workers and in order to compete with other jobs available, salaries will have to go up. Which means the cost of daycare will have to go up and, ultimately, the expense will have to be met by parents."
The National Children's Nurseries Association is among the organisations advocating the introduction of a "Parents' Childcare Payment". As outlined in the Childcare 2000 pre-Budget submission, this payment should be made to parents working both in and out of the home in respect of all children, and should be taxable. "Parents don't have the money to pay for the real cost of childcare," Stapleton says.
The Budget allocated £46 million towards the development of childcare initiatives. With some of this money, and through funding under the National Development Plan, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has announced plans for the development of a "National Childcare Infrastructure".
The structure will have three separate but interlinking co-ordination roles: an interdepartmental committee on childcare, a national co-ordinating childcare committee and county childcare committees.
The development is generally welcomed by the childcare sector, with some reservations. Hilary Kenny, director of services with the Irish Preschool Playgroups Association, explains: "We are very happy with the new infrastructure in so far as it mirrors the recommendations of the report from the expert working group on childcare, which we were represented on. "However, we would feel that the development of policies on childcare and early childhood education on parallel routes is a major cause for concern."
The Department of Education is due to publish a White Paper on Early Childhood Development this week.
The concern expressed by the IPPA over the creation of two different policies is echoed by Noirin Hayes, head of the school of social sciences at the DIT. "The Budget and the co-ordination of childcare services has highlighted the separation of childcare and early childhood education, which I find worrying. "The Department of Education is very silent amid the infrastructural developments," she comments. "They should be a senior player in the co-ordination of services, while in fact they are working separately on a White Paper on early childhood development.
"Other countries have addressed the need to integrate care and education, because childcare is early education. Meanwhile we are copper-fastening a distinction at administrative level."
Creating this sort of separation between early education and childcare has serious implications for children. "The developmental needs of children cannot be met unless they are catered for in a holistic way," Kenny says. "Separating childcare and early education is a non-starter.
"It is hard to understand the thinking here. Anything educational for under-sixes is doomed to failure unless there is a care dimension to the service."
According to Noirin Hayes, "what we have seems to be a labour market-driven response. There would appear to be a lack of vision which takes into account the needs of children and families.
"There have been positive developments," Hayes adds. "And one of the more important ones, I feel, is the uncovering of the debate over the relationship between the family and the State with respect to the needs of the economy.
"We need to take a good look at the duality of roles families play, and develop childcare and family policies which take into account the needs and rights of children and their families."
