Childcare planning rules
Senator Byrne said current planning rules for childcare provision in new developments are failing, especially in Wexford town, where crèche operators are not coming forward.
I want to discuss the issue of childcare, specifically around the current planning rules that provide for a childcare facility to be made available, most commonly through the planning framework, for every 75 units that are constructed. In Wexford town most specifically, these units are being constructed but there is nobody to come on board, fulfil them and operate a crèche from them. It would be important to have a debate in this House on the model of childcare, whether the current situation of having a childcare facility for every 75 new residential units is the best mechanism for providing places and whether our planning rules are flexible enough to allow those units to actually be utilised for other purposes. We should get to grips with that in this Chamber.