Sir, – Minister for Finance Michael Noonan’s intervention to assist first-time house buyers is based on the claim that facilitating demand will cause an increase in the supply. Are we to infer that his underinvestment in public services is based on the same logic? – Yours, etc,
Dr RICHARD SCRIVEN,
Ballinlough, Cork.
Sir, – Ronan Tierney (October 13th) is uneasy about a six-month-old spending 40 hours a week in a creche.
In my parents’ time, a woman was forced to give up work when she married and to confine herself to the home.
Nowadays, with high mortgages and a higher expected standard of living, a woman is equally trapped outside the home, and for financial reasons many cannot stay at home to mind their children, even when they want to.
I’m not sure if that can be called progress. – Yours, etc,
AOIFE LORD,
Tankardstown, Co Meath.
Sir, – Occasionally a commentator, while remarking on the cost of childcare, will make an oblique reference to parents who look after their own children and point out that a Government sop to these people may be required as part of an overall package.
Has it really come to the point where people looking after their own children is considered unusual? It is truly remarkable that those who push for choice in the most controversial of social choices never concern themselves with the most basic freedom – that of caring for one’s own offspring.
While in opposition, Michael Noonan resisted the tax individualisation push from Fianna Fáil during the awful height of the Celtic Tiger era; however, he has never made a serious attempt to reverse this move and the usual lobby groups seem uninterested. Yet we remain with the situation where individuals are essentially assessed individually when it comes to paying money for the State but when claiming welfare, etc, they are assessed in conjunction with their spouses.
Incidentally, I firmly believe the wave of mothers rejoining the workforce on the back of tax individualisation contributed to house-price inflation due to the larger mortgages given to the now dual-income couples. – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW GLOVER,
Lucan, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Minister for Children Katherine Zappone’s childcare scheme unfairly discriminates against stay-at-home parents. This is both unfair financially and disastrously flawed socially.
The scheme sees parents who are both earning the median industrial wage, with two children in daycare, increase their previous yearly net income of €32,542 by €1,920 (after tax and childcare costs). Meanwhile, a similar family, except that the mother leaves paid employment to care for their children at home, gains €100 per year, though their net income was already lower at just €29,000 even before the budget. This scheme blatantly incentivises paid childcare, not parental choice in childcare, especially to low-income earners.
But this scheme is not just about euros in our pockets. It raises the question whether Irish society values, or devalues, the work and contribution of parents who take care of their own children at home during their early years. Before abandoning this model in favour of a model where childcare by paid professionals is the norm, we could look to Sweden, where that drastic social experiment has already been carried out – and where it has failed.
In spite of the material prosperity of the country, the Swedish commentator Jonas Himmelstrand wrote last year that “Sweden has youth with poor psychological health and poor school results, and stressed parents with weak parenting skills . . . Many Swedish parents panic when their child turns one. They feel there is no way they can possibly cater for the needs of their child. They simply must go to daycare.”
He adds that “a generation of parents . . . have been led to believe daycare, school, and before- and after-school activities will do a good share of the parenting and furthermore, do it better than they can. This is the most destructive message in the whole Swedish daycare scheme.”
If we want to imitate Sweden, by all means celebrate Dr Zappone’s scheme. If instead we want to empower Irish parents to fulfil their role to decide and enact what is best for their own children, it must be reformed in a more balanced way. – Yours, etc,
RUTH FOLEY,
Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
Sir, – The announcement in the budget of yet another “consultation process” to examine the needs of third-level education is deplorable.
Have we not just had the Cassells report? Have we not just had two separate sets of data showing Irish universities sliding down international ratings? Have we not had innumerable alerts, ranging from the Higher Education Authority to industry, warning that third-level education is in deep crisis and needs immediate investment?
If education is “the bedrock of our society”, as stated in the budget speech, why are decisions on reviving higher education being pushed back yet again?
Ministers used to be paid to take decisions; now, it seems, they expect to be thanked for taking soundings.
Finally, what is the “exchequer-employer investment mechanism” suggested in the budget? Is the Government formally suggesting that the State abandon third-level education, and seek whatever alms it can from business to turn third-level into one big training programme? – Yours, etc,
MIKE JENNINGS
General Secretary,
Irish Federation
of University Teachers,
Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Sir, – While Budget 2017 did little to restore the cuts experienced in education, the restoration of middle management in schools is to be welcomed. All staff in schools are employed to benefit students.
It is inexplicable that the Government has chosen to punish students who attend ASTI schools by not adequately staffing the management team. If this restoration of the management structure is required by schools, then it should be in all schools. If not, then why extend it to any school? This measure, in my opinion, is petty, punitive and misdirected. – Yours, etc,
Y CURRAN,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – At a time when hundreds of thousands of people have been hit by the devastation caused by hurricane Matthew in Haiti, when 65 million people are displaced by wars and conflict, and an estimated 60 million people are facing severe food shortages due to the effects of El Niño, the Government is likely to commit a mere 30 cents on overseas aid next year for every €100 it spends elsewhere.
Budget 2017 saw a slight monetary increase of €10 million to Ireland’s overseas aid programme (ODA), which is to be welcomed, but it also represents a clear decrease as a percentage of gross national income (GNI). The net result is that ODA spending in 2017 could be as low as 0.3 per cent, which would be the lowest percentage spend that we have seen in 17 years. And this despite positive economic growth figures.
It is a far cry from Ireland’s commitment, made in 2005, to achieving the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of GNI on ODA. At a time when we should be proud of the quality of our aid, and indeed our leadership role on the global stage in negotiating the sustainable development goals, and the more recent New York declaration for refugees and migrants, instead we are falling behind on this critical indicator.
It is imperative that before the next budget the Government advances a multiannual plan outlining how and when Ireland will increase its overseas development assistance in percentage terms. Only then can we put our words into action to support the world’s poorest. – Yours, etc,
SUZANNE KEATINGE,
Chief Executive,
Dóchas,
Olympic House,
Pleasants Street, Dublin 8.
Sir, – Your two front-page headlines on October 12th neatly sum that we have learned nothing since the crash – “€1.3 billion budget package to break key EU rules, watchdog warns” and “Fianna Fail claims credit for greater public spending”. – Yours, etc,
DECLAN McDONOUGH,
Churchtown, Dublin 14.
Sir, – In his ever-precious prose, Fintan O'Toole gets things badly wrong ("Budget might as well have been announced in a fairy fort in Leitrim", Opinion & Analysis, October 11th). Contrary to what he asserts, the Dáil votes on the whole budget package at the conclusion of the budget debate (under way at the time of writing), usually within a couple of weeks of budget day. The appropriations Bill at the end of the year has a completely different purpose. Banana soup à l'O'Toole anybody? – Yours, etc,
ALAN DUKES,
Tully West, Kildare.