This article analyses Irish labor supply policies in the context of full male employment between 1997 and 2007, exploring whether policymakers made a choice between facilitating the employment of resident mothers by means of developing childcare infrastructure and opening up the labor market to foreign workers. I find that the Irish state did not make an explicit choice between the two labor supplies. However, while labor immigration was greatly expanded, the attempt made to develop childcare infrastructure was inadequate. A cultural setting of familialism and low public social expenditure and a generally positive view of immigration explain the limited state investment in childcare. (author abstract)