A range of measures costing nearly £400 million a year to implement has been recommended by the Government's Commission on the Family. They could be paid for partly by changing the present tax arrangements for married persons so as to favour people with very young families, it suggests.
The measures include a weekly payment of £30 for a parent who stays home to rear children up to the age of three years, and a £1,000 yearly subsidy per child for creches and pre-schools.
The recommendations were welcomed by the Minister for Social, Community, and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern. However, he pointed out that the amount of money involved was "substantial".
The commission was established by the former minister for social welfare, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, in 1995, who last night welcomed the publication of its recommendations. It is chaired by a Co Cork GP, Dr Michael Dunne, a former chairman of the Irish College of General Practitioners.
It was asked to recommend ways of strengthening families in a changing environment. In doing so it has put a heavy emphasis on child-centred policies and on helping families with the cost of child-rearing.
The most striking - and costly - of its recommendations deal with payments to parents who stay at home to rear children under three. The summary report published yesterday - the full report is due within weeks - makes it clear that there is disagreement in the commission on these measures.
The commission has suggested that three options be considered by the Government to help parents whose children are in the under-three age group.
The first is to pay £30 a week to the parent who works full-time in the home, or to pay £30 a week towards childcare. This would cost £228 million a year.
The second is to introduce a PRSI scheme, financed by employees' and employers' contributions and by the State, to pay about £71 a week to a parent taking up to three years' parental leave. This would benefit a smaller group of people who currently receive a maternity allowance. Alternatively, £30 a week would be paid towards childcare for parents remaining in the workplace. This option would cost £255 million a year.
The third option is to pay child benefit of £30 a week for every child under three years of age. The cost of this option would be £173 million a year.
Mr Ahern remarked yesterday that some of these figures were more than double the amount of money he had available to him for social welfare increases this year.
Yesterday's summary report says that some commission members question whether a £30 weekly childcare allowance to all working parents of children under three can be justified given "the many calls on Exchequer finances". They also question whether the allowance is consistent with a desire to encourage at least one parent to remain in the home while children are very young.
On tax, the commission notes that the present tax arrangements for married persons "represent a substantial amount of investment by the taxpayer, some £350 million in 1991." This money, it says, "could be better directed to provide more support for families when their caring responsibilities are at their most demanding, for example, when children are very young or when a family is providing full-time care for a family member with a disability."
The commission also wants parents to get a £1,000 subsidy towards the cost of pre-school or creche services for each child between three and five years of age. It suggests that the total fund for this and for payments for children under three should be £260 million.
It wants measures to strengthen marriage, including more State aid for marriage counselling services. It says 100 family resource centres should be established in five years at a cost of £4 million.