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Mums Hub was created because too many mothers face barriers to work, income, confidence, and independence. Our work is shaped by lived experience, national evidence, local research, and the belief that care should be recognised and supported.
The reality
For many mums, getting back to work is not as simple as wanting to.
Many mums want to work, train, or start rebuilding their confidence, but it can be very hard to find a route that fits around family life. Childcare costs, school hours, transport, confidence after time away from work, and a lack of flexible roles can all make the next step feel much harder than it should.
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What we hear again and again is that mums are not lacking motivation. They are trying to find a realistic way forward in a system that often expects family life to fit around work, rather than the other way around.
Childcare pressure
Childcare costs, waiting lists, and limited places can make returning to work feel impossible, especially when wages do not cover the cost of care.
Work that does not fit family life
Many jobs still expect full-time hours, late finishes, or shifts that do not work around school runs, childcare, appointments, and everyday family responsibilities.
Confidence after time away
Even highly capable mums can start to doubt themselves after time away from paid work. Many need encouragement, guidance, and a clear first step back.
Evidence
What the evidence shows
The wider evidence backs up what many mums already know from daily life. Care still falls heavily on women, childcare is expensive, and many mothers need work that fits around family life. For Mums Hub, this is not about pushing every mother into full-time work. It is about making sure mothers can access realistic part-time, flexible and school-hour options when they are ready.
245,000
Women in Ireland recorded their main status as looking after home or family in Census 2022.
Over 30%
More than 30% of women in employment work part time. These roles matter and need to be treated as real pathways.
€14,000 to €18,000
Childcare for one child can cost this much per year for many families, especially in urban areas.
85%
Around 85% of mothers in the Mums Hub survey said they wanted to work or increase their hours.
Financial independence
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For some mothers, income is also safety
For many mothers, access to work is about more than employment. It is about confidence, choice, independence and being able to make decisions about their own future.
When childcare is unaffordable, flexible work is unavailable, and care is treated as invisible, mothers can become financially dependent in ways that limit their options. For women experiencing abuse or control, lack of independent income can make it harder to leave unsafe situations or rebuild stability.
This is one of the reasons Mums Hub sees pathways back to work as part of a wider picture: dignity, safety, confidence and long-term security.
Financial independence is not only an employment issue. For some mothers, it can be part of safety and freedom.
Falling through gaps
Many mothers do not fit the system
Many existing employment supports are built around full-time availability or specific welfare categories. This can leave mothers without clear support if they are not registered as full-time jobseekers, are not lone parents, or can only work during school hours.
These mothers are not choosing to be excluded. Many are ready to work, train or rebuild confidence, but the available supports do not always recognise part-time availability, caring responsibilities or the reality of family life.
Part-time jobseekers
Mothers looking for part-time, flexible or school-hour work should be recognised as genuine jobseekers.
Care responsibilities
Caring for children should not make mothers invisible to employment, training or support systems.
Realistic pathways
Support needs to fit around school hours, childcare, confidence and the pace at which mothers can realistically return.
Our belief
Care should not cost mothers their future
Mums Hub exists because care is essential, but too often it is treated as private, unpaid and invisible. Mothers should not lose income, confidence, pension security, independence or opportunity because they are caring for children.
We believe mothers deserve real choices. That means access to flexible work, practical support, confidence-building, training, financial recognition for care, and systems that understand family life.
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Care keeps families, workplaces and communities going. It should be recognised,
respected and supported.
