€5.8m grants for creche at centre of RTÉ inquiry
Couple receive State Covid payments for businesses
A COUPLE whose creche business was at the centre of an RTÉ investigation over the care of children has received €5.79million in Government grants, mainly in Covid wage supports.
Deirdre and Padraig Kelly operate Links Childcare and have overseen the growth of the business to operate 11 creches around Dublin.
But the owners hit the spotlight in 2013 when the Links Abington creche in Malahide was the subject of an RTÉ ‘Breach of Trust’ documentary, after they secured hours of secretly filmed footage.
In 2015, the firm that operates the creche, Links Creche & Montessori Ltd, was fined €1,000 at
Directors decided to claim supports
Dublin District Court after pleading guilty to eight charges relating to incidents in February and March 2013, under the Child Care Act and pre-school services regulations.
Then in 2016, at the High Court, settlements totalling more than €1million were approved for 22 children in cases arising out of the RTÉ documentary.
The settlements were without admission of liability.
The defendants had filed a full defence and denied the incidents recorded in the footage were representative of the level of care throughout the creche.
While creches were closed for long periods during the pandemic due to Government restrictions, new accounts show the couple’s main firm The Links Creche & Montessori Ltd received Covid Government grants of €5.79million across 2021 and 2020. The firm operates eight of the group’s 11 childcare facilities and the €4.25million in Government grants received in the 12 months to the end of October last, followed €1.539million received under that heading in 2020.
A note attached to the accounts states that as a result of the significant impact of the pandemic, the directors decided to claim available supports, ‘including those associated with payroll subsidies through the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme, in the current and previous financial years’.
The firm received the State supports – in common with tens of thousands of other companies during the pandemic – in order to retain staff and be viable once restrictions had eased.
The €4.25million in Government grants is mainly made up of wage subsidy supports which is paid to the company’s 173 employees but appears as ‘other operating income’ on the firm’s profit and loss account.
The website for the business today states that Links Childcare ‘aims to provide the highest standard of care throughout our comprehensive range of services, from nursery through our Early Childhood Care and Education Programme to after school’.
They stated that ‘we aim to provide a service which is a “home away from home” for your daughter or son’.
The income skewed the profits recorded by the firm for the year where the accounts show that it recorded post tax profits of €4.03million.
This followed post tax profit of €817,658 in the prior year.
The abridged accounts don’t disclose the business’s revenue for the year but the Covid enforced closures on the business would have put a large dent on company revenues.
The €4million profit for last year resulted in the company having accumulated profits of €7.25million at the end of October last.
The company’s cash funds increased by €1.2million from €1.61million to €2.81million.
Underlining the expansion of the business during the year under review, the book value of the company’s fixed assets increased from €1.2million to €2.7million.
The profits last year take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €103,824.
The firm’s two directors, Deirdre and Padraig Kelly paid themselves an aggregate €175,200 last year and this followed an aggregate €127,489 to the two in 2020.
The Kellys’ creche business was established in 2004 and during the last 18-year period, the business has grown rapidly to operate 11 creches with creches at the upmarket Abington in Malahide along with creches at Balbriggan, Citywest, Clonee, Blackrock, Portmarnock (2), Manor, Drumcondra, Clontarf and Kinsealy.
The accounts show The Links Creche and Montessori provided loans totalling €3.06million to a connected firm, P Kelly Villas Ltd including €1.56million last year.
The accounts disclose on a post balance sheet event the business was restructured where the firm’s entire share capital is to be acquired by Links Childcare Holdings Limited. The note states that Links Childcare Holdings Limited is controlled by the directors and their connected parties.
‘We aim to provide a home from home’