A Government not valuing the indispensable role of parents

It is just a month since the resounding defeat of the two referenda put to the voters by the government, but one wonders has the government learned anything. Last Saturday, at the SIPTU Early Years conference in Liberty Hall, Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman, doubled down on ignoring stay-at-home mothers and families who wish to care for their pre-school children at home, and reverted to the government policy of promoting institutionalised childcare only.

According to The Irish Times, the Minister said the pandemic had “shone a light” on the contribution of childcare workers and the fact that society cannot function without affordable and high-quality childcare. A more reasonable observer might object that if the pandemic highlighted anything, it was the importance of family.

Results

The results of the recent referenda suggest that the Irish people agree. The rejection of both proposals was a comprehensive rejection of an attempt to erase the words “mother” and “home” from the Constitution and a signal that the government should follow through on the constitutional promise that a mother not be forced to leave her children to work because of economic necessity.

Yet the government continues to emphasise institutional childcare as the only form of childcare that matters – and certainly the only kind that it is willing to support financially. Every year, more taxpayers’ money is poured into crèches and early year settings.

Early childcare has a role in society, but what of parents who want to care for their children at home? Shouldn’t they be supported too? Don’t their children also deserve the best start?

Listening to government ministers and NGOs, one might be forgiven for thinking that the vast majority of families would choose crèche-type care for their children. In fact, this is not at all the case. A succession of polls taken show that, when asked, the majority of mothers with dependent children would choose to stay at home, were it not for economic necessity.

Furthermore, recent CSO figures – although quite misleading at first glance – show that the vast majority of children in the country are cared for by a parent or family member. The official press release states: “A crèche or similar facility was the most common form of childcare (42%), followed by an unpaid relative or family member (28%)”. This seems to suggest that 42% of children are in creche or similar facilities.

It means that over 80% of children under 15 are cared for at home or by family”

However, those children being looked after by their own parents are excluded. When the number of children in a crèche or similar facility (139,899) is expressed as a percentage of the total number of children in the country, it comes to only 13.8% – which puts quite a different complexion on the figures.

In total, according to the 2022 census, there were 1,012,287 children in the state under 15 years of age. There were 331,783 (32.8%) in childcare, meaning that 680,504 (67.2%) were cared for by parents.

Of the 331,783 in childcare, 110,410 were cared for by a relative or family member which means that 790,914 of the children in the state – or 78% – were cared for by parents or family members. Add to that number a further 20,263 who are minded by a childminder in the child’s home, and it means that over 80% of children under 15 are cared for at home or by family.

These figures highlight the lengths that parents go to to care for their own children, despite the pressures of living in an economy that makes it almost impossible to raise a family on one income.

Tax individualisation, which was introduced in 2000, forced many mothers back into the workplace, resulting in households needing two incomes to compete in the property market. That double-income model led to inflated property prices, which in turn contributed to the disastrous property boom and bust and the housing crisis we are now experiencing.

The disadvantage suffered by single income families remains to this day. To illustrate it in real terms, a couple each earning €50K, with a joint household income of €100K will pay €23,400 in tax. Another couple with the same household income of €100K but where only one spouse or partner is working will pay €29,800 – €6,400 more in tax.

These figures highlight the lengths that parents go to to care for their own children, despite the pressures of living in an economy that makes it almost impossible to raise a family on one income”

If the other spouse at home is raising children, the State gives no help other than the child benefit payment, which all children receive. By contrast, the two working parents will also get the benefit of free preschool childcare, and the Minister wants to offer even more help to them.

Intention

What can we conclude is the intent of government economic and social policy? It is, in effect, to force both parents into the workplace and have children spend the majority of their waking hours in the company of people other than their family. Government policy is informing people’s choices instead of people’s choices informing government policy. This needs to change.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Minister O’Gorman said that he valued his relationship with unions representing childcare professionals and other “stakeholders” – a phrase from that detestable management-speak of which politicians seem so fond. There was no mention of the only stakeholders who really matter when it comes to children: their parents.

In the run up to the elections, perhaps it is time for parents to send a message to politicians that their continued myopic focus on institutionalised childcare is out of touch with what families want.

What can we conclude is the intent of government economic and social policy? It is, in effect, to force both parents into the workplace and have children spend the majority of their waking hours in the company of people other than their family. Government policy is informing people’s choices instead of people’s choices informing government policy. This needs to change”