The £10-a-week childcare payment for under-fives, which is to be discussed by the social partners, could take two years to implement, if and when agreement is reached, it emerged yesterday.
The delay arises from the amount of work involved in changing the programs used by social welfare computers to calculate and print the payment forms.
At a briefing on social welfare payments, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, said that even if the payment had been agreed, it could not have been implemented until 2002 because of the demands of the computer system.
He said there were many complexities in the proposal. Many parents would argue that children became more, not less, expensive after the age of five, he said. A cut-off point would mean a loss of £40 a week to a family, he said.
