A chara, – Fianna Fáil’s pledge to reduce childcare costs to €200 per month is a bold promise (News, November 12th).
I expect it to be front and centre of their campaign.
Fianna Fáil has been in and out of power for decades and it has allowed childcare costs to balloon to some of the highest levels in Europe.
This new commitment to radically lower costs raises an obvious question. If it believes €200 per month to be a realistic goal, does this not serve as a tacit admission that our current costs are scandalously inflated? Does it not tell us that Fianna Fáil is largely responsible for a system where childcare is now financially crippling for many Irish families?
In a way, I admire their chutzpah but I for one will not be taken in by their presentation of themselves as champions of affordability.
Irish families need far more than cynical, recycled promises like this. – Yours, etc,
REAMONN O’LUAN,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – In Japan, many companies, both public and private, offer on-site childcare centres for employees’ children.
With so many working parents in Ireland preferring to work from home (and childcare costs are often cited as a key reason), would any party consider incentivising companies to offer free or subsidised on-site childcare services as part of their employees’ contracted package? A return of more employees to the workplace would also revitalise city centres. – Yours, etc,
AFRIC McGLINCHEY,
Clonakilty,
Co Cork.