Sinn Féin to bring Raphoe Community Playgroup debacle to government's attention

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou MacDonald visited Donegal over the weekend to meet with new local election candidates and the Raphoe Community Playgroup.

It has emerged that the building that houses the community playgroup had been condemned and that the building would not be safe to use after June due to the presence of defective blocks.

The Sinn Féin party leader met with local election candidates Maria Doherty in Downings, Ulick Hughes and Sandra Haughey in Letterkenny and Tony McDaid in Raphoe.

“We met with staff and parents of the Raphoe Community Playgroup and found the situation they find themselves in to be totally unacceptable,” Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty says. “This is a building that the community fundraised to build in 2000. Now it has been condemned through no fault of their own.

“They must leave in June and so far, there has been no response from government. This isn’t good enough. Both Mary Lou McDonald and myself have pledged to continue to raise this with the government. Communities cannot be abandoned in this way.”

A fundraising campaign has been launched to raise money for the playgroup, who are unable to join the redress scheme due to the fact they are classified as a commercial building.

“We are a Community-based Playgroup in operation since 1982,” they posted on iDonate, Save Raphoe Community Playgroup, which you can donate to here. “Thousands of children and their families have availed of our service over the years. Following a meeting on Saturday, March 9, with the engineer we were given the devastating news that, in his expert opinion, we will not be able to reopen in September and after our closure in June the building will be condemned,” the group posted last week.

“In 2009, we were the first group in Donegal to be awarded a Quality Assurance Award. Together with our committees, we fundraised over the years and in 2000 were delighted to move into our beautiful new building. As of yet, we are unable to source any funding from any government body but we will not allow our playgroup to close.

“The children in our community have a right to an education and in their own locality. To this end we are asking you to donate as generously as possible, to enable us to rebuild our Playgroup which has been at the heart of this community for over 40 years.”