Buildings earmarked as creches are lying empty or being turned into houses as developers seek permission to drop commitments to provide childcare facilities in large estates.
Parents who say they bought houses on the “understanding” their estate would have a creche are facing long waiting lists for childcare as many promised facilities remain vacant, even in high-demand areas where the preschool population is rising.
Planning rules require developers to include a creche facility with 20 childcare placements for every 75 homes built in an estate.
The Irish Times has analysed planning applications across every local authority in the country over the last five years.
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In some cases, the childcare facilities required under planning law are not built, remain empty or are eventually granted planning permission to be sold as homes.
A developer last year sought permission to change an empty building earmarked for a creche at the Bellevue Hill estate in Delgany, Co Wicklow, into a house. An objection said residents of the estate bought their homes on the “understanding that there would be a creche”.
A planning inspector’s report said demographic trends pointed to an “ever-increasing demand for childcare facilities in Delgany”. An Bord Pleanála (now An Coimisiún Pleanála) rejected the application, citing a lack of local childcare facilities for residents. The next closest creche to the estate is operating a waiting list and receives between eight and 10 enquiries a week from parents.
In Annacotty, Co Limerick, planning permission has existed since 2016 for a creche that could accommodate more than 40 children on a site within the Bloomfield housing estate.
Developer Bloomfield Homes Limited claimed it had been unable to attract anyone to develop or operate a creche. Between 2021 and 2023 it tried and failed to get permission to build four two-storey, semidetached homes on the site instead.
An application on behalf of the developer claimed a “sea change” in working patterns had meant more parents were “capable of minding children at home”, which had lessened the demand for childcare.
It also claimed childcare was being offered to parents locally at their places of work. But one local parent told An Bord Pleanála 70 per cent of the population of the local Castletroy area is under 40 and there is a high employment rate. The parent said they had struggled to find a place locally for their child even with 18 months’ notice.
In 2024, a developer was refused permission to turn a ground-floor premises earmarked for a creche at the Fernbank apartment complex in Churchtown, Dublin, into three apartments.
The local childcare committee claimed “parents are significantly struggling to access childcare” in the area. A parent who lives in the complex and objected to the plan also claimed the on-site creche “has never operated as a creche nor has Fernbank ever attempted to employ an operator to run the creche”.
In Tramore, Co Waterford, permission was refused in 2023 to change an empty ground-floor premises earmarked as a creche at the Cluain Larach estate into apartments.
The planning inspector’s report said there is ”high demand for childcare facilities in the area, with waiting lists at existing facilities”.
Permission was granted in a number of cases, including in the Bracken Park estate in Castleknock. Two three-storey buildings earmarked for childcare at the 147-house development were eventually turned into houses that each sold for more than €1 million in 2022 and this year.
The Castleknock estate is in the constituency of Fine Gael TD Emer Currie, who said she has been tracking empty creche buildings across Dublin West.
She told The Irish Times she believes the planning system “has too many gaps and flaws” that mean creches “aren’t always built and even when they are, they won’t necessarily open as a childcare facility”.
“This is happening in areas where parents are crying out for places and providers want units,” she said.
Builders only required to provide ‘an empty shell’
The preschool population in parts of Co Wicklow is growing rapidly. Between 2016 and 2022, the zero-to-four age group in Delgany increased by 29 per cent.
As more large housing estates are built and homes are bought by young families, childcare providers are finding that the creches developers are required to build in these estates are too expensive or too small.
Builders are also only required to offer what is effectively an empty shell, which many childcare providers cannot afford to take on and kit out before opening creches.
One childcare provider near Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow, said that, despite knowing of empty creche buildings in local estates, they have spent three years fruitlessly trying to find a premises big enough to be viable as a creche.
The provider, who did not wish to be named, said they unsuccessfully lobbied two developers, asking them to build one larger creche between two new estates instead.
Frances Byrne, director of policy at Early Childhood Ireland, said “kitting out a creche is not cheap”. She said this is one of the reasons these buildings are lying empty.
She also said it may be possible that some areas do not need these facilities and that city and county childcare committees must be more involved in planning.
“Nobody is keeping an eye on the big picture the way [they are] in other countries,” Ms Byrne said.
