Crèche for staff gets go-ahead alongside paediatric centre
By Mary Dennehy
A NEW purpose-built crèche for staff working at Tallaght Hospital will be built in conjunction with the new paediatric satellite centre, The Echo has learned.
As reported in The Echo earlier this month, it emerged that the construction site for the new paediatric satellite centre, which will support the new children’s hospital at St James’s, will impinge on the current site of the crèche.
Fine Gael Senator Cait Keane raised concerns for the long-term viability of the crèche, which, called Small World, is located in a pre-fab on campus and currently caters for 50 children.
This is not the first time that concerns have been raised over the future of the crèche, with staff, parents and campaigners successfully lobbying to keep the crèche open in 2014 after a management decision was made to close the childcare centre.
Once again, lobbying has won after meetings were held with senior officials at Tallaght Hospital, St James’s and the new children’s hospital board in relation to the encroaching construction site.
The dialogue has resulted in a commitment to construct a purpose-built crèche in conjunction with the new paediatric satellite centre – a development which will help secure the future of the crèche .
Senator Keane said: “I have been working hard for over a year at securing a purpose-built crèche for Tallaght Hospital and I am delighted to confirm that it is now going ahead after a decision this week of the Board of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.
“This is fantastic news for parents who use the crèche, the staff and the wider workforce of the hospital.
“Whereas the pre-fab crèche on-site has served its purpose for many years, it was at a risk of closure last year.
“It is fantastic now to see that the children will be accommodated in a new high-quality purpose-built facility.”
A spokesperson for the hospital says: “Plans have now been put in place to provide for a new staff crèche on the Tallaght Hospital campus. This will involve the re-location of the facility from its current location to another site on the hospital campus. It is envisaged this new facility will be equivalent in capacity to the existing crèche and will be designed to modern standards.
