€750,000 extension issue at childcare facility is resolved

A local childcare facility in Cherry Orchard has had a “critically important” issue about €750k funding for a new extension resolved days before the offer was set to expire.

Cherry Orchard Community Childcare Service of Croftwood Crescent was granted €750,000 under the Building Blocks Extension Grant Scheme in May 2025 to build a 200 sqm extension with capacity for 40 new under-two spaces that has been approved since March 2023.

The funding offer would have expired on Monday, June 15 and the team behind the childcare facility noted that the city council were unable to provide the required “legal comforts” needed to move along with the project, as the childcare facility’s solicitors informed them on Tuesday, June 2.

However, Cherry Orchard Community Childcare Service Manager Rachel Galvin contacted the heads of the council, who worked over the weekend to remove the blocks in their way and allow the project to receive funding and the extension is now set to go ahead.

A Dublin City Council official stated: “They had a good look and engaged hard with the Department and managed to get terms that we could actually sign up to.”

Galvin stated that the team had “exhausted every avenue” to get over those matters, but to no avail, before the issue was resolved.

Galvin stated: “As a small community-based childcare provider, we have exhausted every avenue available to us over the past twelve months and have worked diligently alongside our solicitor to resolve these matters.

“This project is critically important to the Cherry Orchard community, which continues to experience significant levels of disadvantage and a severe shortage of childcare places.”

At the start of the year, the local childcare service was granted a €250 a year lease for lands opposite their building at Croftwood Crescent to construct an extension, down from the market value of €20k per annum, exclusive of all VAT, charges and outgoings.

The lands measure 1,309sqm according to Dublin City Council and the extension building is proposed to take up a fraction of that.

The extension is planned to be a 208sqm single-storey facility to the south of the existing childcare facility containing additional classrooms and associated service spaces.

Galvin stated that the extension project is “at a critical stage” and any administrative issues that would have led to delays would have been a “profound disappointment.”

Now, the extension is set to be delivered as Cherry Orchard enters a period of growth over the coming years, with homes in their thousands set to be built.

“The funding has already been secured and is ready to be invested in essential childcare infrastructure that will directly benefit one of Dublin’s most disadvantaged communities.”