One in four children under 13 attended pre and after school childcare last year, compared with one in five in 2006, according to figures released on Wednesday by the national statistics office CBS.

And the number of parents that received a subsidy for a crèche place rose sharply to 388,000 last year, up from 117,000 in 2006, partly as a result of changes in the law, says the statistics office.
The total crèche costs for these parents was almost €2.4bn, of which €1.9bn came from government subsidies. According to the CBS parents paid on average 20% of crèche costs themselves.
The cabinet is expected to announced changes to the childcare subsidy system on Friday because of an expected budget overspend of €500m this year, reports ANP news service.