Childcare costs for working parents have more than doubled since 1998, according to ICTU assistant general secretary Ms Joan Carmichael. In 1998 weekly childcare cost parents about £60 a week. It is now between £130 and £140 a week.
The 1998 figure is based on a report prepared by Goodbody's for the Government's expert working group on childcare. Ms Carmichael's current figures are based on information from unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The union has more than 550,000 members and she says she has no reason to doubt the figures.
Ms Carmichael is also a member of the National Childcare Committee set up to oversee funding, training and the provision of services under the National Development Plan. She says only £40 million of the £340 million provided has been drawn down so far.
The main reason for the poor uptake is lack of infrastructure. Although the number of places has increased over the past year by about 5,000 to 12,000, "no one knows for sure what is out there," she says. Most of the new places are at preschool level. "There isn't really a strategy for after-school care."
County committees must submit detailed reports and action plans on local needs, but the time it was taking was a serious cause for concern. "We are now in the second year of the plan.
"Government departments say that over time places will appear but I would say childcare places won't grow if the infrastructure is not in place. We need a strategy to encourage people to come into the system through some form of public-private partnership. For example, the State could provide premises and properly trained childcare providers could manage the facilities."
Until adequate places were available, the costs would continue to climb and were already preventing many mothers from working. "£140 a week is the norm in Dublin and a woman would need to earn £26,000 a year to take home £100 a week after paying for childcare," she says. "The average woman worker earns £13,000 a year and 60 per cent of PAYE workers earn £20,000 or less.
"We are also looking at young parents who are usually not high up the salary structures and are already paying through the nose for housing."
She accuses the Government of refusing to face up to the issue in terms of tax breaks for working parents. She says the decision to provide a £3,000-ayear home carer's allowance in the last Budget, to offset criticism over tax individualisation, aggravated the situation.
A family, with one child being cared for, and one parent working earning £27,000 has a net income after tax of £21,489 a year, while a working couple with the same gross income is almost £4,000 a year worse off after even the minimum childcare costs were met. Ms Carmichael, who gave up work when her children were young, says the Government must introduce tax relief at source (TRS) to cover childcare costs.
"TRS now applies in respect of mortgage interest and medical insurance premiums," she says. "Under the TRS scheme for medical insurance, individuals pay 80 per cent to the insurer who claims the balance from Revenue."
Paid parental leave is another simple way in which, she says, the Government could help working parents reduce childcare costs. The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs introduced a carer's benefit for people who can now take up to 65 weeks' leave from work to care for someone who is ill and in need of full-time care. However, a parent who takes parental leave of 14 weeks to care for a child under five receives no payment.
"Any parent will tell you a baby of six months or a toddler requires full-time care." With paid parental leave two working parents could take up to a year off between them.
in June senior Government officials were told by the European Commission's employment and social affairs directorate that childcare costs in Ireland were far higher than in other EU states.