Brothers who attended creche featured in RTE expose about childcare mistreatment receive €48,000 settlement

Yesterday, the Circuit Civil Court awarded two brothers who attended a crèche identified in an RTÉ expose about the mistreatment of children a total of €48,000 in damages.

Barrister Gareth Kinsella told the court that Jamie Doyle (8) attended the Belarmine Giraffe crèche in Stepaside, Dublin, from July 2009 to May 2013 and his brother Mark (5) attended it from 2012 to 2013, and that the two children had been removed from the creche following the Prime Time documentary, which was broadcast on May 28th, 2013.

According to the Irish Times, the boys, who sued the childcare facility though their mother, alleged in two separate claims that ongoing deficiencies in care at the crèche had created an “anxiety provoking environment” during the time they spent there.

Video footage in the expose showed Mark, who at the time was not yet two years old, being shouted at in an intimidating and distressing manner by staff, and the counsel also argues that the child had also been falsely imprisoned when he was restrained in a chair in his outdoor clothes for an hour.

Mr Justice Raymond Groarke also heard how Mark could be seen becoming anxious when another child was fed in a forcible manner and vomited.

Giraffe Childcare entered full defences to both claims but offered the €48,000 settlement to the brothers without admission of liability.