Dublin City Council makes move toward directly delivering childcare in the city

Dublin City Council is rethinking childcare provision in the city and aiming to partner with the Department of Children and not-for-profit operators to make early years education more affordable for parents

Add to preferred sources News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 16:37, 09 Oct 2026 View Image A teacher helping children in childcare (Image: Getty)

Dublin City Council is putting steps in place to ensure childcare is accessible and affordable to all.

At Monday’s October full meeting, councillors noted the Childcare as Social and Community Infrastructure report and approved pilot programmes for local childcare provision. To tackle Dublin ’s childcare crisis, which is marked by chronic shortages and surging costs, a working group has been busy behind the scenes trying to reshape the council's approach to childcare.

While DCC has been active in enabling and delivering childcare for decades, the big change here is that they would now be central to actually managing services. By utilising council-owned spaces and acquiring more, the council wishes to partner with the Department of Children and not-for-profit providers to support access and bring down costs for parents.

Social Democrats Councillor Cian Farrell explained that they have a pipeline of sites coming on stream up to 2030 and that there is potential to expand this to Approved Housing Body and Land Development Agency sites in the future. He said there is scope for the council to “run the operations ourselves” in a way not seen before.

“A lot of people are making a lot of money in the childcare space at the moment. We can do a lot to reduce cost and improve accessibility,” he said while commending the cross-party support the working has achieved. He said the initiative is an opportunity to “put party politics aside” and come up with “real solutions” to tackle Dublin’s childcare crisis.

Projects include an English-language pilot, followed by an Irish-language pilot , to support new creches in the city. The council and the department will appraise premises, fund fit out costs, and arrange suitable operators.

This addresses some of the biggest challenges faced by childcare providers in the city, as engagement with over 70 stakeholders shows that rising staff and operating costs, as well as unrealistic scale pressures have been putting pressure on providers, particularly smaller ones. The report stated that childcare systems around providers have become “too complex for small, standalone governance models to carry alone”.

Dublin City Council is already landlord to around 40 childcare facilities and Cllr Farrell previously told representatives at the Community, Gaeilge, Sport, Arts and Culture SPC that their vision is not to “start again” but “to formalise and coordinate the role DCC already plays”. They aim to address gaps in current planning requirements, and see the provision of childcare spaces where followthrough had previously been weak.

Labour Cllr Darragh Moriarty said the council are “leading the way” in terms of local authorities drawing available funds from central government and said they are trying to encourage other councils to do the same. Ultimately, he believes this will lead to more affordable rates for parents who are struggling.

“As a new parent myself, I’ve been involved in the childcare rat race for the last few months and it is very challenging," he said. The South West Inner City rep welcomed the inclusion of the Irish language pilot as a separate and distinct addition.

Rethinking childcare provision in this manner has the potential to open up many more childcare facilities around the city. Former Social Democrats and now Independent Cllr Aishling Silke highlighted the need to protect early years learners who stand as “the most vulnerable members of society”.

She slammed successive governments' failure to provide high quality early years education, and said that while funding has increased year-on-year for the past two decades, the results have a “lack of spaces” and “lack of choice” for parents. She called out the sustainability issues faced by smaller providers and the recruitment and retention crisis in the industry.

Social Democrats Cllr Cat O’Driscoll too highlighted the “activation challenges” faced by childcare providers and said issues like fitout costs are “fixable”. She added that childcare should be viewed as a public service “just like primary school,” and welcomed the “great vision” within the document.

Education’s power to break people's cycles of poverty was highlighted by Sinn Féin Cllr Daithí Doolan, who said the key is to start with creches and pre-schools. By aligning this initiative with the communities that are most in need for childcare facilities, he stressed how they can encourage community wealth building.

Cllr Doolan called for Cherry Orchard in particular to be given consideration following the pilot scheme, and said the incoming population that will come from the current construction of 1200 new homes at Cherry Orchard Point would particularly benefit. “We can deliver it and it will be a positive legacy long after we’ve left here,” he said in the council chamber.

Social Democrats Cllr Jesslyn Henry said the pilot projects represent an important step toward appropriately recognizing the importance of childcare and early years education as essential infrastructure, but cited previous pilot projects which drag on for years before any permanent steps are put in place. She called for the initiative to move from “discussion to deliver” as quickly as possible.

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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