Employers have a responsibility to facilitate their employees' family life, the leader of Fine Gael has said.
In a statement after his party's National Forum for Childcare Organisations yesterday Mr John Bruton said employer organisations were not the body that should be driving the debate about childcare.
"Children are being discussed as if they were an inconvenience that needs to be parked, while the captains of industry increase their businesses' productivity.
"We need to recognise that the nurturing of children is the most important role that any society can perform. It is far more important than increasing GDP," Mr Bruton said.
The Fine Gael leader told the forum Ireland's favourable corporation tax rate meant it was not unreasonable to expect companies to show some flexibility towards their workers' childcare needs and to offer them more flexible working hours.
"Employers must radically change their approach to the child-friendliness of the work contract," he said. "Working time should be rendered so that a higher priority is given to the needs of children."
Mr Bruton said employers had power not only over their employees but also over their workers' children. "When people employ a person they should recognise that they are employing at least two people and probably three," Mr Bruton said.
Too much pressure on employees trying to balance their commitment to their children and their work duties would mean that both children and employers would lose.
Ireland was becoming an increasingly stressful place to raise children, he argued. "From the moment a child is born, its day, and that of its parents, is filled with a series of struggles against the increasingly chaotic living conditions that have become the daily norm."
The Fine Gael leader said a narrow focus on Gross Domestic Product meant economic growth was not being measured in how good people were feeling about themselves.
Because GDP was "measured in pounds" it took no account of the value of a parent who stayed at home to look after their child and instead looked on this as a loss to the economy.
Mr Bruton said his party favoured giving extra mortgage-interest relief to couples with children, to take account of the fact that they needed larger homes. He said it was now almost impossible to get quality childcare at an affordable price in many areas. He favoured giving financial support for the provision of childcare and an extra £25 per week in child benefit for children under the age of five.
Fine Gael also wanted planning guidelines for childcare facilities to be rationalised. "It is wrong for planning authorities to insist that a house in a residential area cannot be used as a small creche to mind children who live in the immediate locality," he said. Primary schools should also be made available for "the franchised provision of childcare after school hours in unused rooms".
Childcare must not be just about releasing more adults into the workforce by taking their children off their hands. It had to be also about making the most flexible and imaginative choices that suited the needs of children from a very early age, Mr Bruton said.
The interests of the child should be the overriding factor in determining the State's childcare policy across all departments, he concluded.
