Call for State childcare subsidies

Oireachtas Committee on Health & ChildrenThe market can no longer be left to decide on how, when and in what form early childhood care and education services are delivered, the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) has stated.

In a submission to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children yesterday, the NWCI called for the introduction of a comprehensive State-subsidised early childhood care and education service over a 10-year period.

It also proposed the extension of paid maternity leave to 26 weeks and the introduction of five days paid paternity leave.

Under the plan, State subsidies would be paid directly to the childcare provider. Fees charged by providers would be capped.

The director of policy at the NWCI, Orla O'Connor, told the committee that the organisation disagreed with the State providing additional tax relief for childcare. She said that such tax breaks would be inequitable.

Ms O'Connor said that while the NWCI supported significant increases in child benefit, such a mechanism had been tried before to tackle the childcare problem and had not succeeded.

The NWCI proposed that universal early childhood care and education services for all three- and four-year-olds be introduced on an incremental basis from next year.

Under the plan, each four-year-old not in school would from next year be entitled to attend a childcare service for 3½ hours per day, five days per week for 48 weeks of the year. This scheme would be extended to three year-olds from 2007.

A subsidised extended care scheme for four-year-olds would also be introduced next year and extended to three-year-olds in 2007.

The plan also called for the introduction of subsidised full day care for one- and two-year- olds by 2010.