Hundreds of students and staff from Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE) gathered in protest today (Thursday May 10th at 11.30am) at the upcoming closure of the college creche at the end of this term due to cutbacks in funding to the CDVEC.

The affected BCFE students were devastated when they got the official news on Tuesday - a move which will push them out of the education system.

This follows Social Protection Minster Joan Burton’s recent announcement that she would abandon plans to restrict lone parent payments if adequate affordable childcare provisions were not announced in next December’s budget.

There are 23 pre-school children currently being cared for in the crèche. Their parents, many of them lone-parents, are currently registered on a wide variety of courses including animation, film, journalism, social care and business studies.

Since it opened in 2004 the creche has been an integral part of BCFE and hundreds of students have benefited from having a creche that provides top quality and affordable, and in some cases free, childcare.
Two other CDVEC crèches are also set to close – Cabra and Whitehall, the latter a brand new purpose-built crèche just opened last year by President Mary McAleese at a cost of €1million. Both facilities can accommodate up to 62 children.

BCFE Principal is very upset at this very recent development: “I am heart-broken. I worked so hard to get this essential facility up and running. This will have a devastating effect on students with pre-school children.”

BCFE students Joe Waime and his partner Pauline’s twins are currently attending the crèche. Joe won’t be able to continue his studies without this valuable support. “Our hopes have been dashed. We just cannot afford childcare in this country.”

BCFE tutor Helen Mahony believes that the closure of this creche is a totally backward step. “We are staging this protest to try and reverse this unreasonable decision.
We demand that the creche stays open to give BCFE students a chance. Without an education they have little chance of securing employment.”