A judge yesterday warned the owners of a creche which failed to meet regulations covering cleanliness and provision of equipment that a "very strict view" of the offences would be taken if they came before her court again. Judge Clare Leonard was speaking after she applied the Probation Act to Jenny Maher and Patricia Sunderland, operators of Magic Moments pre-school, Castleview Crescent, Celbridge, Co Kildare.
The owners admitted nine breaches of the regulations governing the running of creches, including failure to provide sufficient toys and books and not keeping equipment clean.
Dublin District Court heard that inspectors from the South-Western Area Health Board visited the creche several times in 1999 and 2000 before the prosecution was initiated last April. Two officers of the board carried out their first inspections last year and, while some effort had been made to comply with the regulations, the officers found several breaches on March 23rd last. These included failure to provide suitable play materials.
There were inadequate washing facilities for children and for utensils and the hot water tap was not thermostatically controlled, resulting in water being extremely hot. The staff washing facilities were also inadequate.
The court heard that since proceedings were initiated the premises had been brought up to a satisfactory standard. Defence counsel said that the owners had taken out a £10,000 bank loan to pay for improvements. There had been no complaints from the parents of the children and no children had been removed from the creche.