COMMENT: Budget could have been more family-friendly

LAST week’s Budget announcements are to be welcomed as an important first step in building a more balanced society, where the choice to provide for your own family and care for your family are finally backed by investment rather than just more strategy and proposals.

The combination of the universal and means-tested childcare provisions for children from six months to 15 years, together with the financial provision for two weeks’ paternity leave, marks an important shift for the Government towards balancing the care of children between parents. Our MummyPages community simply want the choice to be able to return to work after having children and to be able to share the care of their baby more equally with their partner in the first 12 months of their child’s life.

The childcare subsidies announced last week are nominal compared to the actual costs facing families every month. However, once in place they can be improved over time.

In addition, the requirement for childcare does not stop for working parents once the child starts the pre-school system. In fact, the cost of between four to six hours’ afterschool care can be almost as much as full-time care for an infant once the extra cost of collecting these children from school is factored in.

Work-life balance is of great concern to working parents who typically leave the home early in the morning and return late in the evening. As such, many of our mums work compressed hours with a four-day working week and will now be effectively cut out of the new childcare subsidy system if the minimum 40 hours a week of childcare provision per week for children under three years is set in stone. This will only give relief to parents who spend the maximum time possible working and away from their children, which is not a good parenting model for families where both parents choose to work.

Our MummyPages parents had hoped to see further improvements to shared maternity and paternity leave following the commencement of the paternity leave benefit for parents last month. It is widely recognised that the children cared for at home with both parents sharing this responsibility in their first 12 months of life actually fare better in developmental terms later on in life.

Housing was another area our mums apprehensively waited for much-needed reprieve in the form of investment and tax relief. Unfortunately, the latest help-to-buy scheme effectively discriminates against mums who have taken extended maternity leave or who have been forced out of work due to high childcare costs as they are unlikely to have an unbroken four-year income tax payment history. This is likely to result in the working partner, typically the male parent, having to purchase the property and claim the maximum relief which may cause issues with the mortgage and title of a property, never mind the issues facing lone parents who may have been out of work for a time. 

In addition, the fact that the help-to-buy scheme only covers new homes will result in many parents and parents-to-be having to purchase properties far away from their family support network. It is our hope that any new properties built as a result of this initiative are well structured, with adequate amenities and services for families, unlike the boom era ghost towns that now lie desolate.

Laura Erskine is spokesmum for MummyPages.ie