Marguerite is a 25-year-old mother of a son aged four who starts school next September. She is completing a part-time training course and plans to begin work in January.
Although Marguerite's mother has looked after her son in the morning, she will not be available during the afternoon after he starts school.
Marguerite expects to earn £20,000 next year when she starts work as an office administrator.
She was very disappointed at the Minister's unwillingness to deal with the costs related to childcare. She believed Mr McCreevy saw the change in the tax-free allowances bands as a means to address the issue but she felt more should have been done.
But she welcomed the widening of the income tax rate band for lone parents to £20,150, which means she will pay only the standard rate of income tax.
She will also benefit from the reduction in the lower rate from 24 per cent to 22 per cent.
These case studies were prepared with the assistance of Mr Gavin Duffy of PricewaterhouseCooopers