The imposition of a suspended 12-month sentence at Castlepollard District Court on a childminder who severely injured a baby in her care, has again focused attention on the issue of child-care and the responsibilities of those who are in loco parentis. Comparisons between this case and the high-profile case involving Louise Woodward in Boston last year are already being drawn - although the Castlepollard court praised the humane attitude of the parents. The court was told that the child-minder shook an 18month-old baby so severely that she suffered brain haemorrhages. The child-minder - herself a mother of three children - had pleaded guilty to assaulting the baby in her care and occasioning him actual bodily harm.
In truth, there is probably no means whereby any society can guarantee full protection for young children in the care of child-minders. What it can do, however, is provide the kind of resources and other supports which will help to ensure the best possible care for young children while their parents are at work. Successive governments in this State have lamentably failed to discharge their responsibilities in this regard. There is no official recognition that an increasing number of mothers in our towns and cities must work full-time in order to help pay the mortgage - or need to work for reasons of personal fulfilment. The practical day-to-day child-care needs of parents still hardly registers with the army of (mostly male) policymakers. Indeed, a previous administration - in an act of quite staggering insensitivity - attempted to impose a 21 per cent VAT rate on child-care services and Montessori schools. The move was later dropped in the face of strong public criticism.
There is much that can be done. It is probably unrealistic to expect that the State could fund a comprehensive programme of child-care - especially at a time when low taxation has become something of an article of faith for all the main political parties. But an imaginative programme of tax credits and incentives could do much to bring child-care out of the shadows, and out of the black economy. Companies could be given tax breaks to establish child-care facilities. Parents could be given tax incentives to employ welltrained child-minders. Government could ensure that adequate regulations are in place to protect the child, safeguard its parents and, not least, ensure that the child-minder also enjoys the kind of welfare and employment rights that most other workers take for granted.
There is an urgent need to forge this kind of partnership between government, employers and parents on the child-care issue. A pilot scheme now supported by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation points the way; companies are encouraged to provide the most family-friendly environment for workers with a greater emphasis on flexible working hours and home-working. Employers are not motivated solely by altruism in this regard. Many do not want to lose highly-skilled female workers - as can happen unless a mother is reassured that her children are being looked after in a safe and caring environment.