North Wall CDP

Lobbying Organisation North Wall CDP

Date published 31 Aug, 2022

Relevant Matter Matters involving public funds

Public Policy Area Children and Youth Affairs

Period 1 May, 2022 to 31 Aug, 2022

Specific Details Contacted 2 x TD's ( Mary Lou McDonald & Gary Gannon) regarding space for our preschool children. We sought support in our application to local school for space for our ECCE children (year 2). We have a long waiting list for our community creche and securing extra space would reduce wait times for local residents. We outlined in our letter that we would include the extra class/space under our contract for childcare provision which includes providing staff. No extra cost for the school

Intended results We hoped the newly renovated St. Laurence O'Toole's Primary School would have available space.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Ann Murphy

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Letter (2-5)

We sent letter, emails seeking support from TD's. Prior to the renovation of St. Laurence O'Toole's Primary School, they had a prep year where children joined on their 4th birthday. This freed up spaces in our community creche and allowed for intakes throughout the year. However, the school doesn't provide for prep year and we only have 1 intake each year. Our waiting list is growing beyond what we can provide so we drew up a plan to provide year 2 of ECCE (4- 5yrs) but required space/classroom. If successful, our plan was to move children at age 4 across to new site into ECCE 2 group (which would be staffed & funded under our childcare contract) freeing up spaces. We are one of very few providers who have limited places for babies and if moving the older ECCE children on, has the ripple effect of moving all children, creating spaces across the board.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Gary Gannon TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Mary Lou McDonald TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)