Many parents supportive of Dublin creche despite mistreatment allegations

Parents arriving to collect children from the Giraffe creche at Belarmine in south Dublin yesterday largely spoke well of the childcare centre management.

Most parents who spoke to reporters said they would await the outcome of a HSE investigation into the care provided to babies and toddlers, before making any decision on their children's childcare needs.

Many also said they would be watching a planned RTÉ Prime Time programme after the childcare centre confirmed a complaint was made against it, following secret filming there by a programme researcher working undercover.

A few indicated they were more supportive of the creche management than they were of RTÉ in the controversy.

Belarmine is a sprawling but well-kept development of apartment blocks at the foothills of the Dublin mountains, near Stepaside. The Giraffe creche is a single-storey building situated in the centre of the estate, beside a park, where a number of children could be seen playing yesterday.

Window blinds
Staff could be seen peering around window blinds as reporters arrived from about 4pm onwards, but an intercom on the door was not answered to members of the media.

One of the first women who spoke to The Irish Times approached this reporter anxiously with the words: "Are you a parent too?" However when informed she was speaking to a reporter she left quickly.

Next to arrive was a young man who said he had had concerns about staffing at the creche since his elder child had gone there. She had now moved on to another school and he was collecting his second child.

“Yes we are concerned”, he said. “We will wait and see. There is a big turnover of staff here. We did raise it before.”

He said he and his partner worked full time but they would watch developments over the summer and move their child in the autumn, if necessary.

Next to arrive was another man, who was also adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

“It is difficult,” he repeated several times. “You just don’t know when you don’t see your child during the day . . . This is probably the safest creche in south Dublin since this happened”.

Letters to parents
A woman who then arrived in a four-wheel drive said she was definitely taking her child out at the end of this week.

“But he loves it here,” she said, adding that she had knowledge of four women who had been brought in to RTÉ to view footage of alleged abuse of their children at the creche.

She said letters had been sent to parents, arriving yesterday morning, and she was aware some parents had been given briefings on the allegations by centre management.

However, a number of parents indicated they were more critical of the media than the creche.

One woman, when asked by a reporter if she was a parent, responded “Who wants to know?” and on being told, stepped around the reporter remarking that she had nothing to say to her. She and her partner and a child in a buggy went quickly indoors.

They were immediately followed by a man who asked why he should watch the planned Prime Time programme: "They didn't do so well the last time," he commented, but did not pause to explain his remarks before going inside.