Will Budget ease the parent trap?

Continuing our series on childcare, Journal 2 looks at the Budget proposals and asks a woman who minds children in her own home for her views.

By Barbara Jordan

Rumour has it that the Government is finally set to take children and their welfare seriously. For the first time in the history of the State, money will be allocated to parents to defray spiralling childcare costs. "Spiralling" is no exaggeration. It is estimated that in the last two years childcare costs have increased by 70 per cent, and the annual average for having one child looked after on working days is £5,000.

Let's hope the rumours are true. Remember last December when parents made a clamour on radio programmes and other forms of media to vent their anger on this subject? Pre-Budget soundings had indicated change. There was an air of expectation. The groundwork had been done. The Government had been heavily lobbied by the social partners and every childcare interest group in the land. Since 1980, eleven reports addressing the issue have been submitted to different administrations. Still nothing was done. The only significant measure introduced in the Budget last year was a £10 increase in the Children's Allowance. Though very welcome, this measure came after a 10 year period when a miserly pound or two was allocated to this necessary benefit.

The Government is unlikely to make the same mistake this year. Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy badly needs some positive PR after the Hugh O'Flaherty fiasco. He will hardly risk aggravating parents by ignoring their difficulties. If he doesn't deliver, what then? I would like to think parents would be galvanised into action and march on the Dail or block the traffic throughout the country or come down with something like "blue flu" for a week. But we all know that action is improbable because working parents who are juggling jobs and children just don't have the time.

Speculation and unattributed sources from several Government departments suggest that childcare is central to the Budget agenda and that two very different proposals are on the table. It seems the Government will either:

1) Introduce a taxable, universal payment to all parents. Under this option, parents would be given £20 a week for each child under five years and £10 for children aged between six and 14. This payment would be separate from the monthly Children's Allowance and would be paid to all parents irrespective of whether they are working or not.

2) The other option under consideration is to introduce tax relief at the standard rate on childcare costs for parents who are working.

It is believed the Government will adopt one of the two options outlined above as a means of giving parents some form of direct financial relief. Other measures, such as more capital grants and tax breaks for providers of childcare facilities and the abolition of Benefit in Kind tax levies on employer-subsidised childcare are being looked at.

While it is a major breakthrough to hear some debate about childcare at a high political level, the agenda for debate is totally restricted to the question of funding childcare. The premise is that the lack of childcare facilities, combined with the high costs of existing facilities, is preventing parents, especially women, from working. The only aspect of this massive subject under discussion is how to make childcare available and affordable to all, and who should pay?