MORE THAN €245K ANNOUNCED TO DONEGAL PRE-SCHOOL PROVIDERS

Head of Donegal Childcare Committee Avril McMonagle.

More than €245,000 in capital funding has been allocated through the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to 36 of Donegal’s 145 pre-school service providers operating across the county.

€62,533 was allocated to community managed early childhood services with privately managed early childhood services receiving the larger allocation of €182,635.

Grants were secured to fit out or refurbish an additional room; make minor building alterations and purchase additional play equipment to facilitate an increase in childcare places in September 2016 due to the expansion of the Free Pre-School Year.

Early childhood services located in the Letterkenny EA received the highest allocation of funding totalling €79,186 with Inis Eoghain receiving the second highest allocation of €68,796.

Avril McMonagle, Manager of Donegal County Childcare said: “We are delighted that a number Donegal early childhood service providers were successful in obtaining funding to help cater for service expansion.

“In terms of creating extra child places with a limited budget – this was a significant challenge and its highly commendable that some Donegal early childhood service providers achieved this through expanding existing premises”.

However, Avril cautioned “We need to continually monitor the number of available child places as uptake of the extended pre-school year increases over time. With a number of early childhood services unable to expand further, it is inevitable that certain areas of Donegal will need large scale capital infrastructure grants to build facilities as parental uptake increases.

“Donegal County Childcare will be closely monitoring this situation to identify locations in the county were child places are not available for the expanded pre-school entitlement.

Early Childhood Services that were successful under the 2016 Capital Fund are listed by EA as follows: