A parenting expert has proposed changing the academic year, to reduce the number of holidays school children receive.

Laura Erskin says children in Ireland currently get 69 days holidays in primary school and 89 in secondary school.

These figures do not include weekends or public holidays.

She told Newstalk Breakfast: "Really and truly they can present great difficulties for working parents who need to organise childcare for their children over these holidays - especially when the average employee receives just 21 days annual leave.

"So if both parents are working, and they use up all their entitlement just to cover the school holidays, they'll still fall short".

"The argument is that the old school holiday term schedule has been modelled on a time when Ireland really needed to have those school holidays so that children could go home from school and help parents on the farm.

"This is, I suppose, not the case in modern society.

"There's an argument that maybe the school curriculum and the term times should be looked at".

She said an example to follow could be France - where different parts of the country take holidays at different times.

"Therefore there isn't this huge surge in prices for tourist destinations when it comes to actually enjoying the school holidays and spending that time with your children".

She also said a longer school day could help take the pressure off everyone.

"There's also the arguments that homework is something that is probably not a necessary part of the school day.

"You look at parents and children who are trying to sandwich homework into a very small time when they get home from school.

"Maybe if the school day was that little bit longer it might make homework redundant, and then children would do more of their learning in school".