This article is from page 4 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
UP TO 42 children, clutching hand- made father’s day cards, were col- lected from Ennis Civil Service Créche, by distressed parents on Fri- day evening last.
Just hours before the parents, along with upset staff were told by the De- partment of Finance that the creche was to close in two weeks time.
While worried parents searched for childcare facilities at short notice, the 16 skilled staff, which include two part-time workers, faced into unemployment, many without a re- dundancy programme.
Gathered outside the creche, parents paid tribute to the staff. They were not as satisfied with the Department of Finance, however, who pulled the plug on the civil service creche until they finalised an agreement with a new créche operator.
The department “hope” to have this finalised by October.
Linda Hayes, the current temporary operator of the créche which received the All-Ireland Centre of Excellence Award, said she was happy to contin- ue running the creche until the new operator took over.
Ms Hayes began running the creche on a temporary basis six months ago
when the department failed to attract a full time operator.
Her contract 1s to finish on June 30, but she said she is happy to remain Oy se TH etom enn sre) tor
Spokesperson for the parents Ger- aldine Sullivan said that letter of the closure informed parents on Friday morning as they dropped their chil- dren off.
“It said the consultants would be here all day and next Monday to of- fer us support. So I asked what was the level of support being offered and that was the photocopy of the list of other créches in Ennis which are nearly all full,” she said.
The schoolteacher said she experi- enced a similar situation a number of years ago when Kite ran the créche and parents got two days notice.
Deputy Pat Breen (FG) is demand- ing that the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan review the decision to close the civil service creche in En- he
‘The manner in which this decision was communicated to the parents and staff of the civil service créche is appalling.
‘A Government agency should be leading by example instead of op- erating in this manner,” the deputy said.