Single parents have identified lack of quality, affordable childcare as the biggest barrier to them returning to work, according to a Dublin project working with welfare-dependent women.
This childcare crisis should be urgently addressed to help single-parent mothers move beyond the poverty trap, said Dr Katherine Zappone, from the project in Jobstown, Tallaght.
Dr Zappone said participants at An Cosán (The Path), an adult education programme, have consistently identified childcare as "the single biggest barrier" to education and the job market.
There are around 76,000 welfare-dependent single mothers in the State, and it is estimated that 40 per cent of children in west Tallaght are being raised by single parents, most of them women. West Tallaght has fewer than 200 childcare places outside expensive, privately-run centres, said Dr Zappone, who co-founded An Cosán.
"These women and their children face multiple disadvantages in Ireland today," she said yesterday at a fundraising lunch for International Women's Day.
"They are living against the background of income inadequacy, poor or inappropriate housing, educational disadvantage, isolation, lack of support from partners, low self-esteem and lack of knowledge about their rights as parents."
She said the Government had done "very little to support this sizeable group of women move beyond the poverty trap". She criticised its failure to keep up with its targeted programme to increase social welfare payments. It has done "next to nothing to provide affordable childcare, the biggest barrier for women to getting back to work or education".
With private childcare costing €200 a week, and little else available, single parents have no choice but to continue to stay at home, she added.
An Cosán is a purpose-built centre, combining education, childcare and enterprise. It grew out of the Shanty Educational Project, which was founded in 1986 to address poverty and disadvantage in west Tallaght.