Farrell welcomes DCC proposal to deliver not-for-profit childcare

Social Democrats councillor Cian Farrell has welcomed a Dublin City Council report proposing a state partnership to deliver not-for-profit childcare places in the capital.

The South-East Inner City councillor said the scheme could be a “gamechanger.”

With reducing childcare costs given lip service in this week’s Budget, a new proposal by Dublin City Council could make a material difference.

Under the initiative, two pilot projects (an English-medium service followed by an Irish-medium service) would test a new route for turning publicly-linked buildings into viable childcare services.

The report from the council’s childcare provision and infrastructure working group proposes a stronger role for the local authority in helping to deliver additional affordable, accessible and sustainable not-for-profit childcare across Dublin.

It recommends that childcare be treated consistently as social and community infrastructure, with Dublin City Council using its existing planning, property, housing, community development and regeneration functions to help bring new services into operation.

Initially, the council will work with the Department of Children, Disability and Equality on two pilot childcare projects.

The council has identified a number of potential opportunities across the city and is already working with the Department on preliminary appraisal of its pipeline.

In tandem with this, the council will undertake a feasibility study to explore what a DCC-owned delivery company or joint venture with the Department to run the operations could look like. 

Farrell, who serves as chair of the working group, said “for too long, we have treated childcare as something that will somehow appear once housing is built or a subsidy is provided. But a childcare space on a planning application is not the same thing as a functioning childcare service.”

“Dublin City Council already has buildings, planning powers, development pipelines and deep links into local communities. The Department now has a state-led capital programme and a mandate to create additional public supply.”

Farrell said, “there is an opportunity here to bring those pieces together and actually get more not-for-profit childcare places open.”

“We need to look at ways we can create more high-quality, sustainable, not-for-profit childcare, particularly where the market is not delivering what families need. If the existing state-led route works, we should use it. But if a council-owned delivery company or joint venture with the Department would work better to run the operations, we should be willing to test that too,” Farrell stated.

“If successful, this initiative could be a gamechanger for families in Dublin.”