Connolly Children’s Centre is located on Meath Street and was the old Ashgrove Community Centre.

It runs in tandem with the Connolly Information Centre whereby parents who go back to college or work through the centre are provided with day care facilities for their children in the creche.

It was established in July 1996 by the information centre but it is now run by Bernie Kelly who works tirelessly to make sure they have enough funds to give the children the proper care they deserve.

The creche takes in 60 children, 38 in the morning and 22 in the afternoon. It is open to all children including the mildly mentally handicaped.

It operates from 8.30 in the morning to 5.30 at night. Set fee of £45 per week for full-time care and £25 for part-time apply to working parents.

They also have a subsidised rate for parents who are studying through the Liberties College and the VEC, both of which pay the fees. If the parent is on a training course then £28 of the money is paid by the Dublin Inner City Partnership.

The children are enrolled at Easter and again in January. They employ 16 full-time staff to care for children.

The creche consists of three separate rooms for the children, two for the older children and one for toddlers.

The building was initially derelict, but with the help of a £60,000 grant and Art Squad students from the Liberties College art department they have transformed the place into a children's heaven.

This project is unique in that it was established by the local pepole, designed by a local architect and decorated by the local college.

Considering the size of the Liberties, there is an extremely small number of crèches trying to accommodate the huge demand. Of these crèches, three are run by the Eastern Health Board, two are privately run and only one, the Connolly Children’s Centre, provides a subsided childcare service.

All of these crèches have limited resources and waiting lists of more than a year. This doesn't help people in Linda's situation, as she explains: "I will have to quit work to mind my son because my husband works nights,"she told the Liberty. "I used to leave him with my neighbours but I often came home from work to find that he had spent the day in the pub or the bookies depending on which neighbour was able to take him."

According to Chris McCarty of the Mercy Family Centre, "there is a serious need in the area and nowhere to place the children who need it the most".

The Mercy Centre had hoped to extend the centre by building a clubhouse for the older children, thus freeing up one of the classrooms for the younger children. But there was not enough money for the project, however, because funds were needed to update the toddler room in line with new childcare regulations.

Creches have had to spend money to come into line with new health and safety regulations since last year, and yet only limited support has been offered to help with the costs.

Being an EHB creche, the Mercy centre is lucky as some resources are available to them. However, a privately run crèche in Blackpitts is not so lucky.

It can only take in a limited number of children and their fees are higher than the others in order to cover the costs of a number of qualified staff.

The Connolly Children’s Centre initially received a grant from the Dept of Equality, Justice and Law Reform of £60,000 to set-up and refurbish what was a run-down community, but are presently receiving no money from them.

The Liberty crèche receives a certain amount from the health board to cover the costs of the full-time childcare workers, "but it is not enough", said one of the workers there.

"We have to struggle to make ends meet and for every child we can take in there are 10 more joining the waiting lists for a place."Chris Mc Carty said: "Up to now, governments seem to have ignored the problem but I think that they are finally recognising a real need there.

"Crèches play a very important role in the life of the family today. Not only do they allow parents to work or return to finish college, they are essential for children to develop valuable social skills."

According to Bernie Kelly from the Connolly Children's Centre, "It is necessary to get the children when they are young. This way, problems such as reading difficulties can be spotted earlier.

If not, they are lost in a school system where the teacher can only afford to spend a couple of minutes giving individual attention and then therefore the child is lost," she told The Liberty.

Bernie Kelly believes the problems of shortage of places and lack of affordable childcare facilities for Liberties mothers could be addressed by at least subsidsing the full-time qualified workers' fees.

Mercy Family Centre was established 18 years ago as a mother and toddler scheme.

It has expanded into a centre that not only provides care for toddlers but also pre-school care, after-school care for seven- to 12-year-olds and womens services.

It is located off Donore Avenue and provides for the most disadvantaged children in the area. Unlike the Connolly Children's Centre it is run by the Eastern Health Board.

The creche looks after up to 180 children on any given day. It runs from 9 am to 12.30 in the afternoon and provides a breakfast and snack for the children.

The costs are quite low as they are subsidised by the Eastern Health Board with working parents paying £10 per week and everyone else paying only two pounds. Children are referred to the Mercy Family Centre by the Easten Health Board itself.

The centre covers the Donore catchment area which includes some of the least well-off estates of the city.

The centre's waiting lists are very long and the children come from the flats in the surrounding area which have a high turnover. The only times there might be a noticeable decrease in the numbers waiting are when a lot of people move out of flats in the neighbourhood.

The centre accepts women with drug problems according to Chris McCarthy, the women's co-ordinator there, but only if the women are on some kind of rehabilitation programme.