Childcare tax credit: The Green Party is to propose a new childcare tax credit, possibly worth €150 per child per month, to be given to all parents regardless of income or whether or not they are in one or two-income families.
The credit, to be funded by the elimination of property-based and other tax reliefs and the amalgamation of other family-support payments, would be additional to the existing child-benefit payments. For those who do not earn enough to take advantage of the tax credit, it would be available as a direct cash payment instead.
The party's finance spokesman, Dan Boyle, said at the weekend that the proposal was to recognise the need for appropriate childcare support. However, unlike the recent proposals on childcare from the Progressive Democrats, it is not designed primarily to assist families who need to pay for childcare while parents work.
According to Mr Boyle, it equally recognises "those who can and choose to remain fully involved in childcare within their families".
He estimated that the benefit could be at €150 per month for children up to the age of six, and at a lesser figure for older children. However, the party had not finalised the precise value of the payment yet.
Mr Boyle condemned the PD view on childcare. That party's "only recent policy contributions in relation to child care have been to suggest tax benefits that further help the better off and to propose that our school facilities, which they otherwise would sell off, should be used to incarcerate children from seven in the morning to seven in the evening. As far as the PDs are concerned, crazy is as crazy does."
He said the payment would involve the amalgamation of current child-related social welfare payments such as Family Income Supplement and dependent child allowances. The party wanted to see a review of the current €8.5 billion in foregone taxes as a result of various tax reliefs. "Many of these reliefs have no valuable social or economic role."
Almost all of the current property-based reliefs should go, providing the State with some €500 million in tax currently foregone, Mr Boyle said.
The party favoured some new reliefs, such as increasing those for research and development and producing new ones for environmental activity. However, substantial extra revenue could be gained through reviewing the reliefs, and this would help fund the new childcare tax credit.