Madam, - There was no real surprise in Minister of State Frank Fahey's comment that he was "not aware of any plan at the moment" to help support parents who opt to stay at home to care for their children (The Irish Times, September 15th).
It has long been clear that this Government is fully intent on riding the Celtic Tiger into the ground.
Nor was it too surprising that the National Women's Council should concur with this, but it is disappointing. The emphasis of its very comprehensive pre-Budget submission this year was on providing childcare to enable women to join or stay in the workforce, an admirable objective.
However, surely a correspondingly admirable objective, from an organisation that is intent on securing equal rights for women, is to ensure that those women who wish to stay at home to raise their children should not find themselves financially penalised, as at present. Or are such women less equal?
It appears that both the Government and the NWCI buy into the notion that what is good for business is automatically good for Ireland. - Yours, etc,
MÁIRE GARVEY,
Johnstown Park,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.