Kilcullen to fight Childcare Centre refusal

"Failure is not an option here. This is not about a building, this is about the children."

At a meeting last night where Kilcullen's support for the planned Community Childcare & Education Centre was reaffirmed, Iseult O'Donoghue and her fellow voluntary directors of the project were adamant that the unexpected last-minute funds refusal would be overcome, writes Brian Byrne.

Those present were asked to lobby their local TDs, and especially the Minister for the Environment, Community & Local Government, Phil Hogan TD, to have reversed the decision by the Department to refuse the funding.

Campaign to have funding decision reversedLater today, the Minister will be asked in the Dail if he had directed the Department not to allow the funding, representing 75 percent of the total cost of the Centre, through the County Kildare Leader Partnership which has fully approved the grant. This is by way of a Parliamentary Question put down by Fianna Fail TD Sean O Fearghail.

And Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon told the meeting that he had again spoken to the Minister yesterday and told him that the resolution of this matter was the single most important thing in his constituency at the moment.

Earlier, the directors of Kilcullen Community Childcare & Education Centre Limited (KCCEC) had outlined the details of how they had progressed the project over the last two and a half years.

Planning permission for the Centre was already in place when they took over the project, on a site provided on the campus of Kilcullen Community Centre and where the three decades old Naomh Bride Community Playgroup was currently providing the service in pre-fab accommodation.

Because of a change nationally in funding such centres, the project leaders had to source funds elsewhere. KCCEC co-chair Orla O'Neill noted how €36,613 had been raised from the local community, €12,000 had been allocated by Kildare County Council, and a loan of €70,204 had been secured from Clann Credo, a social funding organisation. The balance of €356,450 was secured after negotiations with the County Kildare Leader Partnership, which had approved it 'in principle' in December, and fully approved it in April.

She read out a letter from Justin Larkin, CEO of CKLP, in which he said that the funding organisation was 'fully committed' to the project, and was 'currently engaging' with the Department to have the refusal reversed. He said it was 'premature' to say that the funding was categorically withdrawn, and that CKLP had previously, in similar situations, succeeded in reversing Departmental decisions.

On the matter of whether childcare projects were eligible for Leader funding, Orla O'Neill reiterated that all through the process, it had been made clear what the project was. CKLP was very clear in its belief that it was eligible, and in 2012 a grant had been made available to fund a Project Manager to work through the complex details of the initiative, including the stringent tendering process.

Noting that state funding for childcare projects was now contingent on 'assessed need', she reminded the meeting that this need had been clearly defined in the recent Community Survey commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action. "We have good primary and secondary schools in the town, this is the missing piece of the jig-saw puzzle."

She added that a local contractor had come through as the preferred bidder on the project, which meant that all the funds used in the construction would remain in the area.

The meeting heard that an appeal to the Principal Officer of the Department had to be made by Wednesday of next week. KCCEC's solicitor has already completed that appeal, which will be sent by registered post today. A Judicial Review is possible if this appeal fails, and would likely be successful, but 'that will cost', those present were told.

Martin Heydon TD, whose consistent support for the project had earlier been acknowledged, said he never expected this situation, and that no community should have to be in the position to require legal proceedings.

Speaking on behalf of Sean O Fearghail TD, James Lawless said that Fianna Fail's Eamonn O Cuiv TD was also aware of the situation, and was prepared to add his weight to the appeal process. "This is not just a Kilcullen issue, there's €50 million of EU Leader funding at stake around the country, and if it isn't spent by the end of this year it will go back to Europe."

Following discussion on what to do next, it was decided to step up a local and national news media campaign, and also to directly target the Minister and other politicians. This will include a rally on Saturday next at 12 noon at the Fine Gael Constituency Office in Newbridge.

Contact details for Minister Hogan and the local TDs were distributed and local people were urged to phone them, email them, and contact them by letter, to make them aware of the importance to Kilcullen of this project.

"The message is, we are not standing for this," Iseult O'Donoghue said. "We are not going to go away. We have a moral responsibility to the children, not just those who are using the service at the moment, but for those who will in the future."