Sir, The recent proposal by Fianna Fail to allocate a special tax allowance for homemakers is a contradiction in terms. If you are not earning, then you can't get an additional tax allowance! One of the most salient findings of the report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women was that full time homemakers did not like to be constantly treated as dependents and wanted some financial autonomy.
Ireland has a family based taxation policy, but the additional tax allowances received by married men with homemaker wives is not perceived as wives' income. Husbands are under no obligation to give this money to their wives. One suggestion made in the Commission's report was that such tax savings be transferred to the non earning spouse as a tax credit paid directly to her (or him). This is a much better proposal than simple tax allowances.
At present, tax allowances only help the better off. Families on low incomes, or in insecure jobs, need two (albeit poorly paid) breadwinners, and tax allowances will be of little benefit to them. In fact, such families really need assistance with childcare costs. A report I completed for the Committee on Women's Rights in 1991 showed that working parents in such families were very dependent on relatives for childcare.
Finally, paid employment has other advantages for spouses - notably social security protection and better financial prospects in the case of divorce or death of a spouse. Irish women have sought childcare facilities and financial support for childcare expenditure, but they have been ignored. Fianna Fail's tax allowance will have to be very carefully worked out, if it is not to be judged as one more attempt to keep women out of the workplace.
Perhaps the most equitable solution is a decent child benefit payment system paid to all parents, including those who are taxpayers. - Yours, etc.,
Lecturer,
Department of Sociology,
Trinity College, Dublin.