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Varadkar: 'Childcare tax breaks for parents not being ruled out'

The health minister said that it would be an election issue.

THE MINISTER FOR Health Leo Varadkar has said the cost of childcare will be an election issue.

Speaking on RTE’s Claire Byrne Live, he said that the government “would not rule out” tax breaks for parents, but said there would have to be caution exercised around any new initiative.

He said that government have made improvements by reversing cuts to child benefit, stating that parents get 50% more than they do in Northern Ireland and the UK.

The health minister admitted that it was a “very small step in the right direction”.

Varadkar said there is a trend in Ireland to make direct payments to families, rather than services, but this could perhaps be looked at.

We would have to be careful with that.

Often it can be the case where tax breaks are introduced it is the providers that end up seeing the benefits rather than the families, he said.

The minister said he is concerned tax breaks could drive costs up and “might not produce the results that you want”.

He said he was also wary that it would only benefit those parents that pay income tax and could be “socially unjust”.

Varadkar said an interdepartmental group will be reporting on the issue before the summer.

Read:  ‘I am one of the lucky ones’: Galway girl cured of rare blood disorder>

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57 Comments
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    Mute Luke Ronan
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    Sep 1st 2022, 7:26 AM

    Nothing special on Repeat Media TV for the winter so. Maybe we get a few nee episodes of The Chase as well?

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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Sep 1st 2022, 7:47 AM

    Any chance of a full re-run of Neighbours?

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    Mute Keth Warsaw
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    Sep 1st 2022, 11:48 AM

    Can they give us new adverts too?

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    Mute Darren Anthony Corr
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    Sep 1st 2022, 4:17 PM

    @Keth Warsaw:
    Anything but those bloody Quote Devil ads

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    Mute Darren Anthony Corr
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    Sep 1st 2022, 4:02 PM

    “International Dramas”

    Also known as the police procedurals from England that ITV shown about 2 years ago and that vast majority of people have actually already seen.

    VMTV really makes RTÉ look professional, and that’s saying something.
    Wonder when the new VMTV channel will start airing Ireland AM and the Chase repeats too.

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    Mute Luke Ronan
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    Sep 1st 2022, 9:19 PM

    @Darren Anthony Corr: they already started with repeats of the chase believe it or not! Such lazy scheduling. They have load of old shoes they could easily repeat if they don’t want to pay for new. content

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    Mute Darren Anthony Corr
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    Sep 1st 2022, 9:53 PM

    @Luke Ronan:
    The thing is, VMTV could actually be a decent channel if they actually bothered to be better than RTÉ rather than just competing with them, and do their own terrible versions of RTEs already terrible programming.
    There also isn’t any need for like 4 VMTV channels, 1 is clearly enough. The other 3 are just zombie channels on life support, mainly because they bought them off other companies to eliminate the competition but then didn’t actually have any plans for them.
    But the main VMTV just tries to emulate RTÉ shows in ridiculous ways, like having the news at 5:30 rather than RTEs 6-1, or their own version of the Late Late Toy Show.
    They should be trying to outshine RTÉ and it really wouldn’t be difficult to do, but VMTV is ridiculously lazy.

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