Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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32. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide an update on attempts to re-establish childcare and early learning facilities at a location in Churchfield, Cork (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26300/24]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I ask the Minister to provide an update on attempts to re-establish childcare and early learning facilities at the site of the old Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield in Cork city.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. From his engagement and that of other Deputies from Cork I am well aware of the issues facing Northside Community Enterprise and of the funding that is required to support the reopening of the Before 5 Family Centre in Churchfield. The centre is in an area of undersupply and of high need for childcare places. The ambition of Northside Community Enterprise to reopen this centre, with an expanded offering of full-time, full-year places for children under three, as well as places for school-going children, is very welcome.

I had the opportunity to meet representatives of Northside Community Enterprise a number of weeks ago while in Cork visiting one of its other services. I was able to clarify that the capital funding I announced earlier in the year for the childcare sector under the national development plan was designed towards the expansion of existing services and that particular funding stream did not apply to the scenario that Northside Community Enterprise finds itself in with the Before 5 Family Centre. However, I was able to confirm to the representatives of Northside Community Enterprise that I and my Department are looking to see what solutions can be put in place in this situation. We see how vital this community facility is for Churchfield. Work is ongoing between officials in my Department and Pobal to find a solution.

Pobal, the scheme administrator, and the local childcare committee have engaged with Northside Community Enterprise and offered support in this regard. There was an initial meeting on 17 May and there has subsequently been a follow-up meeting. I do not have the conclusive answer for the Deputy but we are aware of the importance of this service. We are aware of the significance of Northside Community Enterprise stepping in to take it on and we are looking to bring forward a workable solution.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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When the Before 5 Family Centre was closed suddenly last August, the community lost a facility it had enjoyed for 50 years. It lost a pre-school, an after-school service, childcare provision, play therapy and adult services. More than 100 parents lost out directly. More than 150 children lost out directly and 14 workers lost out directly. There are three other childcare providers in the area and all of them have lengthy waiting lists. There are 303 children in the Churchfield area aged four years and under. This community is crying out for the restart of these services.

I listened with care to the Minister's reply. It is a carbon copy of what the people in that community were told in the middle of March, at the time of the Minister's visit to Cork. I hoped for an update that showed some degree of progress in the past five weeks. Perhaps in his reply the Minister might be able to give a bit more detail on any progress since the last report that was given. This is moving at a snail's pace.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I do not accept the Deputy's assertion that it is moving at a snail's pace. We are looking to create a new funding stream that will deal with situations like this where there is an existing service that is using a building that is no longer fit for purpose and requires significant capital support. That requires my Department to engage with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform to create a new capital stream. As with so much in the bureaucracy of Departments, I wish this would move so much faster. It does not always move as fast as we would like but significant work is being done. We recognise the importance of this particular service and that it is an area of undersupply. We also recognise that a very significant number of parents and young children benefited from this service previously. We want to continue to provide that support to the community.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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I suggest that the Minister ask the parents in the area whether they think things are moving at a snail's pace or not. I do not think the Minister would be too surprised by the reply he would get. The delays in this case are unforgivable. The family centre was shut last year at the end of August. That should have been the signal for urgency in organising a replacement. On 6 February, the company appointed to organise replacement services - not Northside Community Enterprise - wrote to the Minister and other Ministers outlining the need for €366,000 in fresh funding to do necessary works in advance of a reopening. Last month, three months after that, on 13 May the Minister told the Irish Examiner that he was hard at work trying to source alternative funds. Now, we are five weeks on from that and there does not appear to be anything new here. Northside Community Enterprise reckons that there is somewhere between two and four months' work to be done in that building. The chance of it reopening for September is gone but we want to see something happening there in a serious way this year. I will be coming back to the Minister on this before the summer recess. It is disappointing and it is happening at a snail's pace.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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When I was in Cork I sought the meeting with Northside Community Enterprise in order to be able to discuss the need for particular support to get this service reopened. I was able to see the amazing work it has done in other services and understand the particular ethos behind the organisation as a community organisation. This is something we in the Department want to support. I outlined the challenges we faced in terms of creating a brand new stream of funding to meet the organisation's particular needs. I also made it clear that it is something that my Department is willing to do because of the importance of this service and the need to support services like it. We will continue to work on it and look to put in place the necessary new funding stream. I will keep Deputy Barry and the other Deputies from Cork who have been in touch with me about this issue fully abreast of what we are doing.