One in four women responding to an ICTU childcare survey said they had not applied for promotional opportunities because of childminding responsibilities. Of the mothers who took part in the survey, just 1.5 per cent said childminding responsibilities had no impact on their work routine.
Other impacts of parenthood included leaving the labour force for a time or moving out of an urban area due to childcare costs. The survey was commissioned by ICTU and carried out by Nexus Research Co-operative in October.
The findings show that 71 per cent of respondents were using at least one form of paid childcare. The largest number of children - 43 per cent - were being minded using "informally" paid childcare services.
One in three children were being minded using formally-paid childcare, mostly in homes. The remaining 22 per cent of all children were being minded using non-paid childcare services provided by family, friend or neighbour.
The most common range of weekly expenditure was between €101.58 and €125.70. There was no significant difference in the average amount spent on childcare between full-time and part-time workers. On average, each child was minded 23 hours a week.
The average hourly cost of childminding in the survey was €4.77. However, 22 per cent of respondents were paying more than €6.35 per hour, and 5 per cent were paying €12.70 per hour or more.
The survey confirmed that childcare responsibilities were shared with a spouse or partner but not always. Some 16 per cent of female respondents were handling such responsibilities on their own. Some 3.3 per cent of male respondents handled childcare responsibilities on their own.
Some 825 questionnaires were completed and returned by members of six unions in a four- week period. The survey dealt with children aged 0-14 to take account of children who might be in the "unminded" category. The definition of childcare adopted for this research was that of children being minded by someone other than a parent or guardian while parents or guardians were working in paid employment.
There were 1,534 children under 15 among the 825 respondents, an average of 1.9 per parent. Some 6 per cent of respondents had children with special needs.
The unions which participated in the survey were SIPTU, PSEU, MANDATE, INO, MSF and CPSU.