‘It might be better for John to give up his job and stay at home’

MOTHER of four Rosanna Byrne has said her husband is considering quitting his job due to the crippling cost of childcare.

Ms Byrne, a 39-year-old nurse, lives in north Co. Wexford with husband John and their four young daughters.

The couple are forking out up to €840 a month for a childminder, something she said is almost like a second mortgage. They are now considering whether it would make more financial sense for one of them to stay at home with the girls.

‘I am a nurse so I work two or three long days per week so I am gone from 7am until 11 or 12 at night,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail. ‘My husband works in Kerry Foods. He starts very early in the morning, at 6am. So we have a childminder then that comes in three days per week to mind the kids.’

She said this model of childcare, which sees the childminder come to their home, currently suits them best due to their early work starts. She added: ‘It’s a huge expense. We pay €10 an hour, so that’s between €140 and €210 per week. It’s still quite good because of where I live. I believe in towns and cities it probably would be a lot more for a childminder to come into your house.

‘The creche would be more expensive definitely, so that’s another reason why that wouldn’t be an option.’

The couple have four daughters, nine-year-old Saoirse, six-year-old Caoimhe, and two-year-old twins Cáit and Mollaí.

She said their childcare bill is ‘something that we are kind of struggling with at the moment’. ‘We are considering whether it might be a better option for my husband to stay at home or not, and for me to work my fulltime hours. It’s obviously not something I want to do, because I want to stay at home with the kids but it might just be something that has to happen.’