More than one in 10 companies have lost staff in the past year because of child-care problems, according to a survey conducted by the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI).
Of the 503 companies surveyed, 13 per cent said one or more employees had resigned their posts in the past year due to child-care demands. Almost one in three companies said the lack of child-care facilities was affecting recruitment and retention of staff.
More than half of all companies had dealt with at least one query or complaint regarding child-care provision in the past year. The most common request was for flexible hours (38 per cent), while complaints about the cost of child-care services accounted for 33 per cent of issues raised.
According to the survey, high costs were the main obstacle to sourcing child-care, followed by lack of availability.
Some 72 per cent of companies surveyed had familyf-riendly arrangements such as part-time work, flexi-time or extended maternity leave in place. The most family-friendly workplaces were in the financial services sector, where 83 per cent of companies had such arrangements. The construction and hotel, tourism and catering sectors were the least family-friendly.
Those companies surveyed which did not provide assistance with child-care cited insufficient demand as their main reason.
Ms Jennifer Lee, chairwoman of the CCI's human resources council, said the lack of child-care places was seriously hampering companies' ability to recruit and retain staff at a time when almost 40 per cent of them had vacancies.
"CCI does not believe that increasing child benefit will solve the problem," she said. "Increases in child benefit, of up to £1 a day, granted in the last Budget are already being wiped out by the rising cost of child-care, with parents typically paying between £100 and £150 per week per child in the Dublin area."
She called for an increase in child-care places, a review of Government funding and a long-term strategy for the development and maintenance of the sector.
Staffing grants should be made available to employers who run child-care facilities on a not-for-profit basis, she said.
"Also, employees whose employers fund child-care places at independent creches should not be subject to benefit-in-kind taxation."
Introducing the report, Ms Mary Hanafin, the Minister of State for Children, said a partnership approach was needed and it was not just the responsibility of the Government or employees.
She pointed to the survey's findings that 28 per cent of employers had no family-friendly provisions in place, while 9 per cent had never considered assisting employees with the provision of child-care. "And that is a mindset that needs to be changed as well," she said.
Ms Hanafin said local authorities, particularly in Dublin, had been slow to put child-care facilities in place, and she called on them to put more effort into providing such facilities in existing buildings.
