The local community in Dun Laoghaire has recently learned of plans to close the Dun Laoghaire play centre on Library Road as a supervised play facility.
A public meeting will take place on Tuesday December 1st at 7.30pm in Weirs Pub, George’s St, Dun Laoghaire.
The Catholic Youth Service (CYC), which administers the play centre with funds provided by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co. Council, recently signalled their intention to close the centre as a fully supervised facility by early next year.
The local community and parents of children who use the facility have been led to understand that the axing of the existing service resulted from a decision by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council to cut it’s funding to CYC for the play centre from €100,000 per year to €10,000 per year.
Following calls from alarmed local residents, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett immediately raised the issue at a recent Council meeting and demanded answers and assurances that the service would be retained.
Council management claimed that no decision had been made to cut the funding and stated only that the services agreement with CYC was being “reviewed”.
While it is not clear, at this point, whether the threat to close the play centre is a result of decisions by CYC or the Council, the bottom line is that a vital service and amenity for young people and the community is under imminent threat.
Johnny Carr’s Park has been a supervised play area for the children of central Dun Laoghaire for decades. It used to be a much bigger open space and play area and was hugely reduced in size because of the Bloomfields development.
The current play centre was part of a deal with the community at the time that at least they were left with some play facility for the children after the huge impact of Bloomfields.
Because it is supervised, it is a safe and secure place for children and there are also a whole host of programmes, projects and trips for kids organised from there. The presence of supervisors at the centre also provides a sense of security for elderly residents living nearby, that the area is being monitored during the day.
It is totally unacceptable that this vital local youth and community service should be closed. It is even worse that this should happen after all the promises made at the time of the Bloomfields development – including promises of a children’s library extension to the library further down Library Rd.
The community must resist this attack on local amenities. We must demonstrate our anger and determination to fight to keep this vital facility. We must insist that young people and communities are not the ones to suffer from government cutbacks resulting from the greed of bankers and developers who have crashed our economy.