Little Harvard créche pays €0.5m in rent

Little Harvard Childcare, one of the three childcare businesses that featured in a recent programme by RTÉ's Primetime, paid rent of €540,774 to its two owners in 2011, according to accounts just filed.

The business is owned by directors James Hargrave and Regina McGovern and the abridged accounts show that accumulated profits at the end of 2011 were €385,654, up from €324,321 at the end of the previous year. There is no profit figure given in the accounts.

Attempts to contact a spokesman for the business yesterday were not successful. The business has outlets in Blanchardstown, Leixlip and Rathfarnham in Dublin and Rathnew and Bray in Co Wicklow. Little Harvard featured in a recent Primetime programme along with the Giraffe and Links childcare businesses.

A former Garda detective superintendent, John McCann, is to take up a role as child protection and compliance officer with the group next month, according to a notice on the Little Harvard website. The notice from the two directors says Mr McCann is retiring from the Garda after 38 years’ service, the majority of this in high-profile national specialist units.

It says he has been responsible for writing and implementing national strategies for the Garda in respect of child welfare and was a member of the Hiqa’s national standards advisory group which was responsible for the development of the national standards for the protection and welfare of children.