Online adverts seen by the Irish Independent show how under-pressure parents can leave their child with an unregistered adult from as early as 7.30am until 6pm for just €10.

Other adverts posted to social media outlets offer services for babies as young as six months old – for little more than the price of a packet of cigarettes.

Bernadette Orbinski Burke, chief executive of Child-minding Ireland, said fully tax-compliant child-minding businesses were finding it “virtually impossible” to compete with the “black market” trade.

She has also received numerous reports of child protection concerns relating to the sheer numbers of children being cared for outside of statutory regulations.

Read the full article in the Irish Independent