Dinny McGinley
Question:208 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Finance his plans to provide child care facilities in Leinster House and in the various Department buildings. [26096/04]
View answerWednesday, 27 October 2004
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Written answers
As regards the provision of child care facilities in Leinster House, I understand that there are plans to provide such facilities in the refurbished Kildare House. Refurbishment will not be completed until February 2005. Management in the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas are currently considering arrangements for the operation of the facility. As regards child care in Departments, in the 2001 budget, the Government allocated €12.7 million for the provision of ten to 15 crèches for the children of civil servants throughout Ireland.
Currently, five crèches are in operation under the Civil Service child care initiative. There are two crèches in Dublin: Mount Street and Marlborough Street, and three in regional locations: Ennis, Athlone and Sligo. An operator has recently been appointed for the crèche built as part of the Government Laboratories campus at Backweston, County Kildare. This crèche is expected to open in January 2005 bringing the total number of Civil Service crèches to six.
In view of the existing distribution of staff throughout the country, OPW have continued in 2004 to explore opportunities for the development of crèches under the initiative and a suitable site has been identified in Cork for the development of a crèche. The future direction of the initiative will be reviewed in the light of the decentralisation programme with consideration being given to the provision of child care in the decentralised locations.