The proposed €1,000 grant for grandparents who take care of their grandchildren could potentially be extended to other members of the family.
There was huge reaction to news of the ‘granny grant’ yesterday, with many people saying it was unfair to other family members, like cousins, uncles and aunts who also provide childcare for grandkids.
People stressed that grandparents aren’t the only people who help out with minding youngsters in the family.
Proposed #GrannyGrant is good in that it recognises the valuable contribution grandparents make to childcare in the home, but early years services are drastically underfunded and many women with small children in Ireland still face hard choices. We need to dig deeper.
— Amy Greer Murphy (@amygmurphy) August 1, 2018
The government’s plan was to allocate €1,000 per year to grandparents who take care of their grandkids for at over 10 hours a week.
The payment would be offered to all four grandparents if they all provided the eligible amount of care. This means it would cost the state €4,000 per child.
However, during an interview with RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan, Minister Shane Ross said the grant could potentially be extended to other caregivers.
He said: “We will start by looking at how it worked with grandparents and if there was a demand or a justification of extending it to other people that would be absolutely fair enough.”
Despite mass criticism of the grant, he believes the grant is a good move. He told The Independent, “The payment is aimed at recognising that grandparents allow young mothers and fathers re-enter the workforce by giving their children care they would not get anywhere else and which comes at no cost to parents or the State.”
It is believed the grant could cost €71 million a year.
What do you think of the ‘Granny Grant’?
