THE fact that Ireland is the most expensive country in Europe for childcare is hardly surprising. The only thing that's surprising is that a survey was needed to divulge the information in the first place. Support for working parents from the Government is miserly at best, and I say that as a parent who has just finished with the childcare system.

I'm afraid to work out how much has been spent putting two children in childcare over the past seven years but the bill easily runs into the tens of thousands. I know some people will say, tough, that's what you get when you both go out to work.

But it's not as simple as that for many parents. The necessity of having two incomes for many is simply about survival. And never more so in this current economic climate with pay freezes, pay cuts, rising interest rates and the rest of it.

It's not a luxury, not a choice. Maybe for a lucky few it is, but not for the rest. It's about providing for your family.

I'm not complaining about childcare providers. I understand their position.

The reality is that they are commercial providers and they have to make a profit. That's their prerogative. It costs serious money to establish the business, then have to pay insurance, salaries, rates and everything else that comes with running a viable enterprise.

And I have to say the level of childcare which my own two children received was second to none. So good in fact that I'm sure they'd often have lived there on a permanent basis, rather than have to put up with my moaning.

The youngest has just finished in permanent childcare as she sets about entering mainstream education. And at times it feels like we're weaning her again as every dinner that comes her way is compared to how the creche did it. The carrots aren't cut the same, the broccoli isn't as nice. The list is endless. And she was there for mornings only. Imagine if it had been full time. There would be a rebellion.

The latest Government policy, if you can call it that, is a joke. They now provide a year's free childcare to every preschooler in the State. It sounds great on paper but when you work it out it's anything but free as you still have to pay for the time the child spends in the creche outside of the paid 3.5 hours.

The Government regime is great for stay-at-home parents who get a few deserved free hours every morning. I've always wondered where the Government think the children go for their other years of childcare. Once again it is a case of the authorities living in cloud cuckoo land.

Good childcare services are vital for any working parent, but is it fair that it costs heaven and earth?

The Government has consistently failed to recognise the excessive burden of childcare costs. One family I know, and they won't be alone on this, pays considerably more for childcare for two children than they do on their mortgage and that's for part-time care.

The Government has failed to come up with a strategy that makes childcare affordable to any great extent. They've tinkered about the edges for almost a decade, pretending that they have a policy. But the reality is that they don't.

They're too afraid of offending the stay-at-home parents to make any decision. If they jump off the fence, they're afraid they'll have a rebellion similar to the senior citizens outcry on their hands.

I'm not in any way diminishing the value of parents at home. It's a tough station. But the Government doesn't know how to approach the problem, and as long as that continues, there will never be an affordable childcare policy in this country.

- FERGAL MADDOCK