Vol. 478 No. 6
37 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Finance his understanding of the weekly cost of child care for working parents for a crèche for a full day weekly, for Montessori and pre-school weekly, for a child-minder in their home weekly and for a child-minder in the child's home weekly; his views on whether such expenses should be tax allowable; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11715/97]
My Department has no responsibility for the types of child-minding services referred to in the question and is not, therefore, in a position to provide detailed information on the likely weekly costs of such services.
In relation to the question of allowing tax relief for the cost of child-minding services I would again point out, as in previous replies to the Deputy, that the question of allowing tax relief on expenditure relating to child care services raises complex issues with very different views on the likely impact of such a measure.
The Second Commission for the Status of Women in its report to Government in January 1993 considered the matter but did not recommend that tax relief for child care expenses be given to working parents. The commission considered that it was preferable that any additional State assistance for child care facilities should be provided through increased investment in child care support and services rather than by providing tax relief to parents for work-related child care costs. The NESC report, No. 1991 on women's participation in the Irish labour market reached the same broad conclusion. The commission noted that tax relief would do nothing to increase the supply or quality of child care and would not improve the training or the supply of qualified child care workers. Furthermore, it concluded that tax relief would be of little or no use to those with low or no income and that it would be of more benefit to the higher paid than low earners.
In this context, I would also like to point out that, for example, it is tentatively estimated that if a tax allowance were introduced for the parents of children under five years to cover the cost of registered child care up to a maximum of £3,000 per annum, then the cost of the Exchequer would be up to £60 million if relief were granted at the taxpayer's full marginal rate.
I have no plans to introduce tax relief for child care expenses at this time. As the Deputy is aware tax relief is but one of the methods by which assistance can be provided for children and may not, in fact, be the most appropriate method. The State already provides considerable assistance to parents, in particular through expenditure on child benefit, education and health services. I will, of course, keep the matter under review.
