Dáil committee: All parents should be paid an hourly credit for looking after their children, to be taken from a central "care fund" made up mainly of Exchequer contributions, a Dáil committee heard yesterday.
In a presentation to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, Cúram, which represents unpaid parents and carers, said such payments should be universal.
The fund would include contributions from the equal opportunities childcare programme.
Parents would then be allocated electronic hourly credits to be used on the type of care they chose.
The carers could then cash in the credits, and pay tax and other contributions separately to those paid within the existing tax system.
According to Cúram president Caitríona Lynch, the proposals would recognise the contribution of some 500,000 stay-at-home carers, and allow them to earn pension rights while making social insurance contributions based on their work.
It would also allow for less expensive family and community care options to be provided, leading to real competition for providers of institutional care.
In its presentation, the National Children's Nurseries Association (NCNA) called for parents to pay a "sliding scale" of rates for childcare, with the State stepping in to pay the balance.
Ashling Hooper of the NCNA also said it was an "economic myth" that increasing the supply of childcare would reduce the fees charged to parents.
Unlike other sectors, the costs associated with providing childcare places do not decrease as numbers increase, she said.
Childcare facilities should be exempt from county council rates because they fulfil a "vital infrastructural need", she added.