A lack of childcare places is becoming a major obstacle to women entering the workforce, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) warned today.
ISME said Irish firms are finding recruitment difficult because so many women are being forced to stay at home to look after their children as childcare costs here are among the highest in the EU.
The association has conducted research showing the average cost per child is €180 a week, which is over three times the EU average and works out at 38 per cent of the average worker's take-home pay.
ISME said many women, even those who are highly qualified, find it makes more economic sense not to work.
It said new research shows the lowest increase in female labour participation in the past five years is among the 25- to 45-years-of-age group.
Latest CSO figures show 546,000 women classify themselves as home-makers. Only 50.9 per cent of Irish women are in employment, compared to 74 per cent in Sweden and 73 per cent in Denmark.
As a result, ISME says employers are increasingly turning to using immigrant workers to fill vacancies, with an estimated 250,000 needed over the next five years to keep up with demand.
ISME today called on the Government to introduce a comprehensive childcare policy to help women get back into the workforce.
"It is extraordinary that there is a ready supply of labour on our own doorstep that we cannot tap into and consequently need to recruit 50,000 migrants annually to satisfy labour demand," said ISME chief executive Mark Fielding.
He said the OECD has predicted 220,000 childcare places will be needed by 2010.
Mr Fielding called on the Government to give tax breaks to families paying for childcare and also to those building and providing childcare facilities.