Students still funded after creche closes

STUDENTS IN Bray Adult Education Centre whose children are in the creche there will still be entitled to funding for childcare after the closure of the facility in June.

The Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board announced last week that due to a funding shortage they will no longer operate the creches in Wicklow, Arklow and Bray.

The closure will take effect at the end of June following the end of the Leaving Certificate.

‘I’ve nobody to mind my child, I’ll have to give up my education,’ said one woman attending the Bray education centre who did not wish to be named.

She said she found out about the move when a notice was put up in the creche. She explained that she pays €25 per week at the moment and can’t afford to pay any more than that. ‘Students are being let down,’ she added.

However, KWETB will be putting the creche facility out to tender in the hope that a private operator will come in and take it over.

The board said in a statement that they had done everything in their power to keep the childcare facilities open but cutbacks made it impossible to run them.

Funding streams are still available to the parents attending education at the County Wicklow bodies and can be catered for by private creches.