CHILD-CARE worker Martina Murphy cradles one of her 30 charges, a smiling four-month-old, and utters the question vexing her fellow professionals and VAT authorities this week: "How should education be defined?"
The concern was sparked by an Irish Times report which revealed that a 20-year-old EU directive was cited for imposing the standard 21 per cent VAT on all child-care businesses with an annual turnover of more than £20 000.
Crucially for the estimated 50,000 children whose parents could face greatly increased child-care costs, creches and playschools offering "a clear educational programme" are exempt from the charge.
What constitutes such a programme appears to be troubling the Revenue Commissioners who responded to media coverage by suspending VAT payments on child-care services pending a decision. "Until such a time there is nothing further to add," said a Revenue Commissioners spokesman.
A satisfactory conclusion to this thorny issue may prove more elusive than authorities imagine. Many nurseries claim to provide some form of structured education and others point out that education and child care are difficult issues to separate.
"The way I see it, the two are inextricably linked," says Ms Murphy who is chairwoman of the National Children's Nurseries Association and a partner at her own bustling creche in Castleknock, Co Dublin.
"In my opinion education starts from day one. Children learn social and life skills in nursery, things that are important to grasp before a child begins his or her formal education in school."
Ms Murphy has no intention of setting up a more focused education programme even if it could mean avoiding annual VAT payments of several thousand pounds. "I think it is a better idea to convince those in authority that the care and education of children is our primary concern and that while it may not be as formal or as structured as, say, a Montessori regime, it is still of educational value to the child," she says.
Superficially at least, the City Montessori Nursery in Dublin's city centre presents a different scenario to that of Nursery Nippers, Ms Murphy's creche. The doorbell at the Montessori Nursery is far too low down for an adult visitor but is at the perfect position for a child. The theme continues inside with children-friendly door handles and similarly proportioned furniture everywhere you look, but interestingly, no dolls.
"We don't keep any cuddly toys or dolls here,", says Aideen Brennan who runs the nursery from the basement of her home. "Their `toys' are productive ones like jig-saws and building blocks. We are continually encouraging the child to take pleasure in tasks purely for the sake of it."
It is likely that Montessori schools with their more rigid educational regime will be exempt from the VAT imposition. But Ms Brennan does not believe that day-care centres, which she says have a "valid educational role", should have to pay VAT.
"I used to run a day-care centre and so I know exactly what it involves. Essentially, you are providing valuable stimulation for the children. You teach them to share, to take turns, to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, the list is endless. Is this education? I certainly think so," she says.
So, too, does Sheena O'Brien who runs a creche which has adopted more than a few elements of the Montessori ethos. The purpose-built building houses some five separate centres in which her charges - aged from seven months to four years - can play.
"We are educators in the broader sense of the word," says Ms O'Brien. "The course that child-care workers go on now is even called early childhood education," she says, illustrating the shift in training emphasis that has taken place over the past decade. "The notion of both care and education combined is what we are trying to convey."
She calls this Educare, and if the 400 NCNA members have their way it is a notion that the authorities will be forced to examine before deciding on the VAT issue. The subject will be top of the agenda when they hold their a.g.m. on March 8th, and creche owners have already begun petitioning parents, asking them to voice their objections to VAT.
The 1977 EU sixth VAT Directive at the centre of the row does stipulate some exempt services, including those related to health, education and welfare. Sweden, the UK, Germany, Luxembourg and Finland have all since decided that child care should be VAT free, but Ireland has never done so. Yesterday it emerged that the Government could have availed of zero-rated child-care facilities for VAT up to 1991 but for some reason failed to do so.
