Just 10 percent of all nine month old babies are looked after in day-care centres, according to new figures. Sixty percent are looked after by their parents while the rest are looked after by relatives, friends, nannies etc.

The data comes from the latest report of the Growing Up in Ireland study, a massive longitudinal study of 20,000 nine month olds and ine year olds.

Of the 39pc of nine month olds who are not looked after by a parent during the working day, 27pc were in centre-based care, which equates to just over 10pc of all babies in the study aged nine months.

The figures showed that 42pc of children aged nine months in non-parental care were looked after by relatives, with 32.1pc of this made up by grandparents. A further 16.9pc of such children were looked after by a childminder.  

Neighbours, friends and au pairs made up the balance.

The figures also show that the majority of mothers of children aged nine months return to work because of financial pressures.  

Just under two thirds (65pc) of women gave financial reasons as the main reason they returned to work, with just under a fifth (18pc) saying their career was the main reason, and 17pc giving other reasons.

A recent poll carried out by the Iona Institute showed that only 17pc of the public see day-care as the preferred option for young children under five years of age.

Half (49pc) think the preferred option for children in this age group is to be looked after during the day by a parent at home and a quarter (27pc) think the preferred option is to be looked after by another family member such as a grandparent. The rest had no opinion.

In addition, the poll found that 62pc of people want State help to be provided to families in the form of a direct payment such as Child Benefit. Just 30pc want extra money allocated to day-care instead.

The vast majority of children in non-parental care spend more than 15 hours in such care per week.

The figures show that 38pc of children aged nine months spend 15-29 hours a week in non-parental care, while 38.2 of these children spend 30 hours or more in non-parental care. Only 23.9pc of such children spend 15 hours or less in non-parental care.

In 2009, CSO figures showed that only 11 per cent of children of primary school age are in day care.

Those figures also showed that most of these are looked after either in their home by an au pair or nanny, or by a paid relative and not in an outside location.

Only four per cent of children of primary school age are put in child-care centres, the CSO figures revealed

The vast majority of primary school children are looked after either by a parent (81 per cent), or by an unpaid relative (nine per cent), during day-time hours.