The Department of Children will not intervene to save childcare facilities in vocational colleges across the State despite widespread calls for them to be kept.
A spokeswoman for the Department said VEC creches were being run too expensively and if they reduced their costs there was no reason why they should not be able to continue operating.
She said the other 95 per cent of childcare facilities being funded by the department were facing the same funding cuts and would continue operating.
About half the 20 VEC creches are to close at the end of June due to cuts from the Department of Children introduced in last December’s budget.
The Teachers' Union of Ireland has criticised the development, as creches in vocational colleges in counties Clare, Limerick, Carlow and Cork close in coming months and the City of Dublin VEC closes its three creches – in Ballyfermot, Cabra and Whitehall – at the end of June, with the loss of 72 childcare places.
At a protest outside the headquarters of the City of Dublin VEC in Ballsbridge this evening, student parents who use the creches, teachers and other staff called on the the CDVEC to reverse its decision to close the creches and “demand adequate funding from the Government to ensure the survival of these vital facilities”.
Formerly funded by the Department of Education on a grant scheme for each creche, responsibility for funding transferred to the Department of Children in 2010, and the model changed to a grant-per-child scheme, paid directly to the creche.
From September the grant will be reduced from €170 per child, per week, to €145. This grant is only paid for 43 weeks per year, while the public-service creche employees must be paid for 52 weeks of the year.
A spokeswoman for the Department said VEC creches were being run “on a higher cost model”. She said VEC creches accounted for about three to four per cent of the 800 or so creches funded by the department.
She did not say which aspects of the VEC model were “higher cost” than those used in other childcare facilities.
Community childcare facilities can employ childcare workers on community employment schemes paid for by Fás.
