A strong hint that the December Budget will include significant moves on childcare, including a big increase in child benefit payments, has been given by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
Calling for "radical budgetary initiatives" to deal with the issue, Ms Liz O'Donnell said the steps needed were affordable and "no longer postponable".
She told delegates at the Network Ireland conference in Waterford at the weekend that proper childcare support must be a priority if women were to succeed in business. The Government had made a start last year by introducing initiatives to encourage employers to provide adequate childcare facilities, but more was needed.
"In my view, the most immediate way to address this issue, one of the most acute social demands of the day, is for the Government to substantially increase child benefit in the first instance in the forthcoming Budget," she said.
"Child benefit is paid to every family with dependent children. A large increase in the monthly payment is affordable and can go some way towards reducing the burden of childcare costs facing thousands of families in a fair and inclusive way. In addition, extra resources must be provided to increase the range of childcare facilities available in the workplace and in the community."
Network, the organisation for women in business, the professions and the arts, chose the need to strike a balance between working and living as the theme for its conference, "Winning Ways of Working - Achieving Success Without Selling Your Soul", which attracted 180 delegates, including 10 men.
Ms O'Donnell, who opened the conference, said she believed women represented the largest pool of potential entrepreneurs. "We make up 40 per cent of the workforce, compared to 28 per cent 20 years ago. Yet only 3 per cent of Irish women are employers and 5 per cent are self-employed."
Mr Simon McRory, managing director of Graphite HRM, which supplies human resources services and products, told delegates that contrary to popular belief, money was not a motivator of staff.
"We cannot motivate our employees," he said. "We can only create the environment in which they themselves will become motivated. Bonus plans, health benefits, holiday schedules and so on do not motivate employees; rather, they prevent them from being dissatisfied."
Ms Hilary Maher, principal consultant with Penna Human Resources in Dublin, said the place that work was taking in our lives was growing, dramatically in some sectors. Longer working hours and a growing imbalance between work and life seemed to be closely linked with higher levels of stress in a significant number of people.
"There is ample research evidence from around the industrialised world to suggest that `family-friendly' work practices have a positive effect on employees . . . and improve the public image of organisations," she said.
