Concern that buildings developed as creches are being sold as residential homes
childcare
facilities being sold off by developers as residential homes.
Minister for Children
Norma Foley
said she is working with Minister for Housing
James Browne
to try to update planning regulations that are 'not working the way they should be working'.
Under the current rules, each development of 75 new homes needs to include a childcare facility with places for at least 20 children. But anecdotal evidence and a spate of 'change of use' planning applications from developers reveal that in some cases buildings ostensibly developed as 'creches' are being designed and built with the true intention of selling them as residential homes.
This means that buildings intended to provide much-needed childcare facilities are either sitting empty for years or being sold as expensive new builds after the developer successfully applies for a change of use to housing.
READ MORE
It is understood Ms Foley has already been meeting officials in local authorities to discuss the issue. There is a belief within the
Department of Children
that different local authorities are applying planning rules in different ways.
At the first meeting of the Oireachtas committee on Children and Equality on Thursday, Ms Foley said she was now working with the
Department of Housing
to 'update' planning laws to increase supply of childcare places.
'I believe that there are significant challenges around the planning guidelines,' Ms Foley said.
'I know myself of instances where there are facilities that were built, that were never used for the purpose for which they were built in terms of [a] childcare facility, and then eventually some of them became a change of use, and something else went in there that's not acceptable.'
Ms Foley also suggested that planning guidelines could help ease the issues with national supply of childcare places.
'I think that's a very serious issue around the planning guidelines. I think they're not working the way they should be working,' she said. 'And I think we would be surprised what that might bring on stream when we manage with the Minister for Housing to revisit all of that, because it is a shame that we do have those facilities and they are not being used for [childcare].'
According to
Emer Currie
,
Fine Gael
TD for Dublin West and party spokeswoman on childcare, said there were a number of examples in her constituency alone of much-needed childcare facilities either lying empty or being sold as homes.
Ms Currie highlighted one estate where two three-storey homes intended to be childcare facilities when they were built in 2014 'lay idle for years'. The developer applied four times between 2017 and 2023 for a change of use to housing. Ms Currie explained that the units, which were advertised for sale as a creche, 'were built in the same style as houses'. 'Both have now been sold as housing,' she said.
In the Barnwell Park estate in Dublin 15, the developer applied to change two units intended to be childcare facilities into housing but this was refused by
Fingal County Council
in 2023 because it would 'set an inappropriate precedent'. Ms Currie said these buildings are 'still lying empty.'
'As parents we realise that finding childcare is a challenge. You have parents that believe that they've found a childcare solution that's going to be in their estate, or close to them, and then it never materialises. You can imagine the disappointment that follows,' Ms Currie said.
She said she was calling on the
Department of Finance
to make childcare a 'priority' in the ongoing review of the
National Development Plan
. 'This is our moment to be able to say that childcare is essential infrastructure,' Ms Currie said.
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