UNA UI SCOLDAIDHE,
Madam, - Louise O'Reilly (December 3rd) says that minding people's children is "informal" work and "cannot be regarded as beneficial to the economy or the State". She never mentioned if she had children or not. If she does, she should stop paying her childminder.
As regards work being "unregulated and outside the tax net", only now are carers being recognised for the marvellous work they do in caring for people who otherwise would be a "burden" on state resources.
As for the "hard-earned taxes paid by women who go to work", the tax individualisation system has established that it is the single-income families who are penalised for choosing to look after their own children.
A trait I have found in some wage-earning women is that they always want someone else to look after their brood for little or no payment. As for hard-earned taxes, they want a single-income father trying to support his own children to supplement their child-care out of his taxes. - Is mise,
UNA UÍ SCOLDAIDHE, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.