CHILDREN'S Minister
Barry Andrews was in Inishowen this week for the
official opening of the €600,000 Bocan Community
Crèche near Culdaff.
The launch of the state-of-the-art facility was the
culmination of years of work by committee's past and
present. Senator Cecilia Keaveney yesterday praised
their efforts.
"The committee chaired by Michael Doherty, and the
entire group past and present, are to be commended
for sitting down, seven years ago to commence this
project.
“It is a number of years ago since I had Minister
John O'Donoghue, as Minister for Justice, in
Buncrana trying to sell the new concept of monies
for both private and community crèches. It took some
time for projects to evolve. Therefore it took both
the government to provide finance but also groups to
draw down the grants.”
The new Bocan Community Crèche was realised with
public funding of €565,000 from rural cohesive body,
Pobal, along with €40,000 of community funds.
Sixty five families and 81 children are now
currently availing of the service - triple the
numbers from the old facility.
Senator Keaveney added: “The additional value beyond
the places for children is the fact that currently
five full-time and four part-time staff are employed
which is a trebling too in staff employed since
extending the services. This has huge implications
in a small rural economy.
“The range of supports now offer huge opportunities
for children and parents alike in that there is not
just a three-hour morning session for preschoolers
but breakfast clubs catering for ages six months to
12 years; after school clubs for same age group and
baby and toddler groups up to 2½ yrs.
“This is a state-of-the-art crèche that will serve
this community on a not-for-profit basis for the
current and future generations to come. I wish it
well," added the Moville-based senator. |
