IRISH PARENTS pay more for childcare than any other country in the Western world, according to a new survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Irish parents in two-income families pay nine times more than a family in Belgium to have their children looked after while they work.

The survey, which is published in today’s Irish Daily Mail, reveals that 45 per cent of the income in a double-earner household with two children is swallowed up by childcare costs.

This figure is based on a couple whose combined salary is one-and-a-half times the average industrial wage, and takes into account government subsidies.

The next most expensive country is Britain, where creche fees eat up 43 per cent of the annual household income. However, Britain tops the poll for single-income families. Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada come next in the poll, at 39 per cent, 36 per cent and 29 per cent respectively.

In Poland, by contrast, parents only pay 5 per cent of their annual income to have their children in daycare, while in heavily-subsidised Sweden, the figure is 8 per cent. In Germany and Luxembourg, less than ten per cent of the family income goes on childcare.

The average bill nationwide in Ireland is €7,500 – rising to an eye-watering €10,000 in Dublin. That’s €144 per week for child under 12, rising to €192 in Dublin.

That’s more than it would cost to send a child to secondary school at St Andrew’s College in Booterstown in Dublin, where the annual fees are €6,110.

Alternatively, you could send your child to Mount Anville or Castleknock College in Dublin for the same as you’d pay to have them in an average creche in the city.