Fine Gael today rejected accusations that its criticism of childcare payments to EU migrant workers were racist.
The party sparked a political storm when it said that the Government had not budgeted for the requirement to pay the new €1,000 childcare allowance to migrant workers from the EU, even if their children were not resident here.
David Stanton Fine Gael social and family affairs spokesman
Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan said the Government had properly budgeted for the payment and accused Fine Gael of being racist.
Fine Gael social and family affairs spokesman David Stanton said this was an appalling suggestion. "He's trying to divert away attention from his own incompetence. What we're saying is this is a budgetary situation, it's simply a question of doing the sums right, if they did the sums at all," he said.
There are 166,000 migrant workers from the EU now working in Ireland, and Fine Gael claims that if one-third of them claims their entitlement to the €1,000 childcare allowance for children under six, it could cost €150 million.
Under EU rules, welfare benefits have to be paid to all workers even if the child is living outside the State. This provision has been used by Irish workers in other EU countries.
Mr Stanton said migrant workers were very beneficial to the economy but added that the Government should look at a different way of administering the payment, such as through a voucher system.
"This is a totally new payment designed to help parents of children in this country. In other countries they don't have the same childcare costs as we have. Our childcare costs have gone through the roof, they're out of control," he told RTÉ radio.
Labour accused the Government of getting its sums wrong on childcare.
The party's spokesman on social and family affairs, Willie Penrose, said the childcare supplement "was designed to help defray the high cost of childcare in Ireland for all children, whatever their nationality".
Mr Penrose said: "The Government has now discovered that EU law is likely to treat the early child supplement on the same basis as child benefit."
He asked: "How is it that the government not know of this implication prior to the budget day announcement?
"This is yet another example of the government getting its figures wrong. We don't know how much it will cost in years to come and neither, apparently, does the government," Mr Penrose said.