Main pic: Geraldine Burke, manager, and Eoin Gildea, chair of Letterkenny Community Childcare.
A number of childcare charities are to hold a protest outside Donegal County Council’s Letterkenny office on polling day.
Letterkenny Community Childcare, which supports more than 160 families through its award-winning service, was told last year it has to find a new home due to the presence of Mica in its current building. Raphoe Community Playgroup has also been informed it must vacate its centre in June over safety concerns due to defective blocks. A charity in Ardara is in a similar situation.
Now, they plan to protest outside the Letterkenny Public Services Centre, which will act as a polling station, on June 7th, between 12pm and 2pm.
Geralding Burke is the manager of the Letterkenny Community Childcare facility.
“We are striking on Friday 7th June and closing for the day, to highlight the lack of action from the government,” she said.
“It is unbelievable – Raphoe, Ardara and several other affected services are joining us as well as parents. The intention is to picket at the County Council office in Letterkenny (Grass Roof) between when people are voting.”
Ms Burke said the Letterkenny service urgently needs to relocate.
“Remedial repairs were carried out, however, they are now cracking, the lifespan of the building is very limited,” she said.
“At this time, 151 children attend, from 124 families. We are the only full day community childcare provider in Letterkenny, the biggest town in the county.”
Ms Burke said they are now in their fifth year of requesting support to relocate.
“The government departments and agencies are aware of us,” she added.
“To date, we are getting no help from any government agency to rebuild our childcare service. Raphoe Preschool is being demolished at the end of June and they have had no assistance either.”
Ms Burke added there are 22 other services affected, from all over the county, which is over 40% of the childcare facilities in Donegal.
“If 40% of childcare in Donegal have to close in the next few years, due buildings being unfit for purpose because of defective blocks, what do parents/guardians do when they are trying to get to their employment,” she continued.
“How do companies recruit new staff if there is no childcare availability? Currently the childcare sector in Donegal does not have the capacity to meet the demand for places, all services in all areas have long waiting lists, this will worsen with closures due to defective blockwork.”
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