The Taoiseach has confirmed that a requirement on someone entering insolvency to give up work if childcare costs exceeded their salary is to be scrapped.

Enda Kenny made the commitment in the Dáil after the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said it would be anti-family, anti-woman and anti-employment.

It comes after comments by Transport Minster Leo Varadkar who said some working women would have to choose between their careers and paying the mortgage if they enter the insolvency regime.

"If you can't pay your mortgage as a result, or buy your groceries as a result (of childcare), then that is something that needs to be taken into account in any insolvency arrangement" he told the Irish Examiner.

"Nobody is asking anybody to give up their jobs. What is going to happen is that people are going to come forward, they are going to say ‘I can't pay my debts, I can't pay my mortgage’, and in that case, the insolvency practitioner will go through with them why they can't pay their bills, and obviously a creditor is not going to agree to a writedown unless that has been gone through and they can work out what is the most they can pay" he added.

Mr. Kenny has previously said that he would find it "quite incredible" that anyone would be forced to give up work and stay at home as part of an insolvency settlement.

Today he told the Dail that the coalition simply will not allow this to happen