Sunday was designated active play day in Dublin where Dublin City Council encouraged children to play in Merrion Square. Sylvia Thompson investigates what's being done to provide more playgrounds to get children back to active play.
Less than 10 years ago, there were more golf courses per head of population in Ireland than there were children's playgrounds. Thankfully, in the past few years - following the National Children's Strategy in 2000, the publication of Ready, Steady, Play: A National Play Policy last year and a significant injection of cash from the Government - the number of playgrounds in both urban and rural Ireland has increased substantially.
The National Children's Office (NCO), which has had the role of monitoring the number of playgrounds developed since Ready, Steady, Play was published in March 2004, says there have been 77 new or refurbished playgrounds in the past 18 months.
"It's a very visible commitment to children's play which, in itself, generates further demand for new playgrounds. The ratio in Dublin City Council is the best. In rural Ireland, you can still be geographically far from a playground and the challenge is to keep up with the new growth population centres," says Marie Kennedy of the NCO.
"There is a higher awareness of the importance of children's play. It used to just happen. Now, children need help to make sure they have spaces to play," she says. "Playgrounds are important for the integration of children into communities. They are important for helping them deal with their growing bodies, informally meeting other children, dealing with conflict as well as for communication between parents," says Kennedy.
Among the 50 or so recommendations in the National Play Policy is that each county council or urban district council employ a play development officer.
To date, only Dublin City Council has employed a full-time play development officer, but many other councils encourage community development or sports development officers to undertake projects relating to children's play.
Ann Mallaghan is the play officer/community and enterprise development officer in Galway County Council. "We've just opened two playgrounds - one in Loughrea which has a young children's play area and an adventure park for older children.
"We asked the children beforehand what they'd like and found out that monkey bars and basket swings are hugely popular so they've been included. Also, we have a special swing which is suitable for children with disabilities. The other playground we've opened is on Inisbofin Island, which is the first playground on an offshore island. The playground there will be important as a place for young families to interact and also for the benefit of tourists," she says.
Many of those developing play policies are keenly aware that playgrounds only fulfil one small albeit important part of children's play needs.
"Children use their whole environment for play - streets, waste land, public open space - and they play mostly on the street even when playgrounds are provided," says Richard Webb from Súgradh, a voluntary organisation supporting children's play.
Other studies have found, unsurprisingly, that children gain significant play value from the natural environment - slopes, trees, bushes, sand, long grass and water. Natural features such as these should be retained or provided in play facilities.
The provision of purpose-built seats and shelters and facilities for older children and young teenagers has also been found to reduce vandalism.
New and refurbished playgrounds must meet international safety standards and safety inspections are carried out by playground inspectors. And, as more and more playgrounds are upgraded, local authority fears (previously cited as the reason why there weren't many playgrounds) of insurance claims are diminishing.
Súgradh, together with the Irish Preschool and Playground Association (IPPA), has been granted funds to set up a play resource centre which, from September, will offer assistance to those developing policies and amenities for children's play.
However, the increase in traffic and the speed at which some cars travel in urban areas continues to leave many parents extremely cautious about letting their children play in their local areas.
Ann O'Brien, Dublin City Council's play development officer, is very conscious of the need to develop safe areas for children to play in. She says: "We are looking at all kinds of play environments including how to make walking routes to school more interesting for children and creating 'home zones' which are designated areas where cars are secondary to pedestrians.
"Unsupervised play for children has been shoved into less space. We need to give them a bit more room."
Giving older children and teenagers somewhere to play has been the primary motivation behind the current pilot project for skateboard parks which was launched earlier this year. Several local authorities have expressed interest in building skateboard parks over the next few years.
"We have a skateboard park in Galway city and another in Loughrea. We're also putting one in Tuam.
"But it's important to think about and ask young people what they want before building the same style of skateboarding park everywhere," cautions Ann Mallaghan.
Factoring out risk in state-of- the-art facilities will certainly not work for teenagers, whose nature it is to rebel at some stage. Likewise, you cannot completely sanitise children's play or else they won't learn the basic rules of survival which are keys to their psychological and physical development.
Ultimately, it is everyone's responsibility to give children opportunities to play safely near their homes with informal supervision and allow teenagers to hang out in green spaces where adults and children pass by.
Not only will such spaces help young people become streetwise adults but they will also keep parents in touch with the rules of the games that are being played and, crucially, offer them chances to intervene if necessary.
See www.playireland.ie for key information on starting a playground and creating a rich play environment. See www.dublincity.ie and go to playdays for ideas on outdoor games children might play. See also www.childfriendlycities.org.
Children have their say about play
Kaitlin (9):
I like playing in parks because there is lots of space to run around. My favourite outdoor game is donkey [a throw-and-catch ball game].
In playgrounds, it's a bit annoying when teenagers go on the swings and slides that aren't for them.
On my road, I think there should be a sign saying "children at play".
Michaela (9):
I like playing on the road with my friends. I like playing cops and robbers and going on my bike.
Sometimes, we don't see the cars and they beep at us. I wish some of the cars would go more slowly.
Ruairi (10):
The place I enjoy playing most is the school yard. My favourite game is soccer. It would be better if there were grass areas to play in as well as the yard and if there were nets on the football posts.
When we are playing on the road, we shout "car" when there is a car coming and go after the younger children to get them off the road.