Report seeks additional childcare payments

Stay-at-home parents should be provided with State pension rights and an additional childcare payment in either cash or vouchers should be made to users of quality preschool or Montessories, and All-Party Oireachtas Committee recommended today.

An increase in universal increase in child benefit is called for, to offset the rising cost of bring up children in Ireland.

The Joint-Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights issued a Report on Childcare today which contains twelve recommendations.

Fianna Fail deputy Seán Ardagh, who chaired the committee told reporters that an increase from the current o.4 per cent of GDP spent on childcare should be increased to 1 per cent, or close to €1.2 billion.

Asked what practical impact the report would have on the policies of this Government or the next, Mr Ardagh said studies from All-Party Committees "certainly influence decisions taken by Government in the short-term and in the medium term".

Among the recommendations is the removal of responsibility for childcare from the Department of Justice and transferring it to a Cabinet Minister in either the Department of Health and Children or the Department of Education and Science.

It has also recommended a universal increase in child benefit, from the current level of €144 per month for the first child, to offset the rising cost of bring up children in Ireland.

The committee strongly supports early education in the year before a child enters primary school. Ireland committee to providing childcare to at least 90 per cent of children between 3 and 4 years of age as part of the EU's Barcelona Objectives signed in 2002.

However, at the moment, Ireland has the lowest rate of enrollment in early childhood education when compared with other EU countries.

The committee recommended that universal childcare should be available for all children in the year before school.

Mr Ardagh admitted that if pension entitlements were to be provided to stay at home parents this was something that would have to be met by the State.