Joan Carmichael, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), said last week that information from unions affiliated to the ICTU showed it now costs between IR130 and IR140 per week for a place in a private day nursery in Dublin, compared with about IR60 a week in 1998.
The 1998 figure came from a report on childcare provision in the Irish Republic by Goodbody economic consultants, which had been commissioned by the Government's Partnership 2000 Working Group on Childcare. The report said about 146,000 children aged up to nine were in paid childcare. Government figures show that in 1971 just over 25 per cent of the labour force were women. By 1992 the percentage had risen to just over one third of the labour force and in 1999 stood at 40.4 per cent.
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