The nearest one is in Father Collins Park, a 26-minute walk with a busy road in between, says Ciara Niamh Browne, a member of the residents’ association.
There are only enough spaces at early learning and childcare centres for roughly one in four children, a report by the group Young People at Risk has found.
Council chief Owen Keegan said he was reluctant for the council to take on a new role. “When we get so much criticism for not doing the things we have responsibility for.”
“It’s a great business to do, but it just financially isn’t rewarding,” says Zoe Poynter, who ran the play café, Little Monkeys in Killester for four years, before closing down in 2017.
But not all of them have been included in an online database of missing children that the Gardaí at first said shows “all missing children in Ireland”.
It would make financial sense for after-school clubs to turn away children of non-working parents, says Austin Campbell of the Robert Emmet CDP. But “we don’t want to leave them behind. So we lose money.”
The council’s play development officer says she wants to meet with a representative of the Clongriffin Community Association and others to see the playgrounds at Father Collins Park and talk solutions.
Government policies and plans talk about the need to encourage compact city living, and apartments that are for families and those with children, as well as singles.
Noel Smith and Kelly Caffrey’s job is to get to know young people in the north-east inner-city who may need their support – perhaps now, perhaps sometime in the future.
