31 January 2024
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
File photo of TD
Cork South-Central TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire has raised yesterday with the Taoiseach the crisis in the childcare sector in Cork and urged the Government to intervene.
Speaking in the Dáil chamber Teachta Ó Laoghaire said,
“Taoiseach, to find a childcare place in Cork city or county at the minute, even if you have the money to spend a second mortgage, is effectively impossible.
“Current figures released to Peter Horgan in the Echo today say that some 130 children were affected by some 30 closures of just the after school, last year, and this is just the after school, add to that countless more in the preschool category. One particular closure in Grange affected an awful lot of parents.
“There is a particular crisis in Cork, it is an issue everywhere though and I think it is high time, that the State took a more direct role in increasing capacity as well as addressing the sustainability of the sector.
“Taoiseach, what is your intention to ensure that greater capacity is created in the Cork area in terms of early years services? Because it is preventing many people from going back to work, preventing people in going to work and it is depriving children of a quality early years education.”