Only 11 per cent of children of primary school age are in child care, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The figures also show 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 figures, contained in a CSO Quarterly National Household Survey report , reveals.

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.

The report also shows that pre-school children spend more time in child-care than primary school children; one-in-five pre-school children are looked after outside the home for part of each day (an average of 21 hours per week).

The one-in-five are mainly in Montessori schools and playgroups.

The figures also showed that 58 per cent of children who lived in couple households where both parents were working used non-parental childcare , while almost two thirds (65%) of children who lived in lone parent households where the parent worked full-time used non-parental childcare.

The main types of non-parental childcare used for children aged 12 years and under were Unpaid relatives, Creche/Montessori/Playgroup/After-school facility and Childminder/Au pair/Nanny, with the same proportion of children, nine per cent, using each type.