Madam, - Dr Garret FitzGerald, writing about the childcare issue, expresses the view that for many women with young children the motivation to seek work outside the home can be attributed to a desire to escape poverty (Opinion, July 16th). Where this is the problem, or where extreme financial pressures due to housing costs are being experienced, he feels the State's role should be to provide childcare facilities free or at low cost.
It is rather interesting that no reference is made to the eloquent language of the nation's Constitution. This guarantees protection to the family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of society, an institution which must be seen as the necessary basis of social order and therefore indispensable to national welfare.
It is hardly surprising, then, to find a commitment following to the effect that the State shall endeavour to ensure that mothers are not to be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.
Where stands this commitment today? - Yours, etc,
PETER SCOTT, Fairview Heights, Dromore, Co Tyrone.