Madam, - As a stay-at-home parent I found Kate Holmquist's article, (Health Supplement, Dec 27th), on the Budget's childcare provisions objectionable and inaccurate. Her use of rhetorical questions such as "what are the educational qualifications of women who choose to be full-time mothers?" or "What do their husbands earn, for example?" is both divisive and irrelevant.
Her snide suggestion that the extra €1000 per year will mean another handbag in Brown Thomas is frankly insulting to all those mothers for whom opting to rear their own children on a full-time basis means real financial sacrifice.
The assertion that stay-at-home mothers were those that benefited most from the Budget because they have no childcare costs is disingenuous. Does not "individualisation" penalise single-income families - and this from a Government that Ms Holmquist claims wanted to support mothers in the home "at the expense of the children of mothers working outside the home".
In my view, this Government has opted for a "divide and conquer" attitude with regard to childcare issues.
Articles such as Kate Holmquist's play into their hands. - Yours, etc,
ASTRID NEWMAN,
Hillside,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.