Ireland is to face sharp criticism over the weakness of its childcare system in a major report from the European Commission on Wednesday.
The Irish Times has learned that in its assessment of the Irish National Action Plan (NAP) on employment, the Commission warns the State is not doing enough to assist women's return to work in the face of growing labour shortages.
The first annual report on the member-states' NAPs is one of the key elements of the EU's employment strategy and is an important part of the legacy of the former commissioner for social affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn.
The report will say that Ireland should pass from discussing the childcare issue to concrete action.
"Insufficient childcare provision (one of the lowest in Europe) and the high marginal tax rates faced by married women returning to work," the report says, "constitute significant barriers to increased female participation in the labour force, a key element in alleviating labour scarcity in the years ahead."
Evidence of the effect of the childcare deficiency is dramatic. In terms of the overall employment figures of men and women in Ireland, there is still a 26 percentage point gap between men and women (73.5 to 47.4 per cent).
The report shows that while childless Irish women between 20 and 44 participate more strongly in the labour force than the average in the EU - 81 to 79 per cent respectively - the picture changes sharply as soon as they have children.
Then the employment rate among the same age group with children up to the age of five plummets to 46 per cent, five percentage points below the EU average and far behind Austria, Belgium and Portugal (68, 66, and 72 per cent respectively).
The report's findings come just ahead of the publication in Ireland of a major report by an interdepartmental group on childcare which is expected to recommend important changes in the next budget.
And they have been strongly welcomed by the campaign group, Childcare 2000, which is calling for the introduction of new childcare allowances for all children.
The co-ordinator of the campaign, Ms Anne O'Donnell, said the issue was one that needed to be addressed immediately and should be seen as part of infrastructural investment.
Ms O'Donnell estimates the annual cost of the suggested allowance system and other key changes at £600-£700 million, a figure she says the economy can at present well afford.
In assessing the relative merits of member-states' employment National Action Plans (NAPs), the Commission notes that in Ireland the success of the economy has brought significant benefits to women in terms of overall employment levels.
Between 1994 and 1998 the percentage of all women actually in paid work rose significantly from 40.3 per cent to 47.4 per cent.
But the Commission notes that plans in the NAP for mainstreaming gender equality throughout its various employment strategies are "rather limited, being largely confined to the early planning stages." The report is broadly supportive of other elements of the Government's employment strategy, emphasising the priority given to adult literacy and lifelong learning programmes to cut long-term employment.
The specific recommendations of the report will be finalised at the Commission meeting on Wednesday, but sources say other member-states are already lobbying to soften the impact of some of the criticism on them.
