Madam, - Your Editorial of October 10th infers from new CSO statistics which show a majority of women in the workforce that there has been "changeover in the profile of the working family" which demands an answer in the form of childcare. Whether or not this is good for society, you say it is "a reality".
In fact, it is as much a vision as a reality. The statistics quoted refer to women, not to mothers. And they do not discriminate between part-time and full-time work. They show that 28.5 per cent of mothers of children under 14 work outside the home full-time, 23 per cent are working part-time, 46 per cent are working in the home, while 2.5 per cent are classified as unemployed. This means that a full 69 per cent of mothers - as well as some fathers - are at home part-time or full-time.
This majority of Irish parents are never the subject of headlines or editorials except in the context of the lack of childcare ("They are locked to the kitchen sink, God help them", etc).
Much of the generation now in power in Ireland, which remembers the marriage bar and blesses itself at the sight of a female bus-driver, still sees getting mothers into employment as progressive, whether or not the women want to work or whether or not it is good for the children. Major new research published by Penelope Leach two weeks ago, which showed the importance of their mothers' presence to young children, was roundly ignored by the Irish media.
An Ireland in which both parents work full-time and children are parented by others will or will not become a reality depending on the political choices we make. Charlie McCreevy's tax individualisation, lauded in your Editorial, was a strenuous attempt to put flesh on the vision. A family can now be penalised to the tune of €5,000 because one parent is at home full-time.
We need to do away with this outdated vision of progress and vote for policies which equally value parents rearing their own children and parents working outside the home. - Yours, etc,
VICTORIA WHITE, Ashfield Road, Dubin 6.
Madam, - Sheila O'Flanagan (Business This Week, October 14th) says the the Government is right to be looking at childcare. She fails, however, to ask why the State should subsidise childcare for those mothers who work outside the home, while at the same time, through individualisation, financially penalising those who mind their own children.
Would equality not demand that all childcare should attract the same Government support - even if provided by the child's own mother? - Yours, etc,
DAVID FITZGERALD, Knocknashee, Goatstown, Dublin 14.