Lobby urges action on child clubs
The childcare lobby is due to travel to Belfast City Hall to demand urgent government funding to save afterschool clubs in Northern Ireland.
Two hundred red balloons will be released for each of the voluntary clubs under threat of closure.
Funding has run out for the facilities, which are mainly used by parents who cannot afford private child care.
Marguerite Hunter Blair from Playboard said the clubs’ loss would be devastating for low earning families.
Earlier this month, the group said plans for a massive expansion of out-of-school provision should be extended to Northern Ireland.
It said European and lottery money had almost run out and the government had not earmarked any specific funding.
The group said NI’s voluntary out-of-school sector was now “in real danger of being virtually wiped out”.
The government is putting £680m into encouraging more schools in England to set up breakfast and after-school clubs.
There are 237 voluntary out-of-school clubs in Northern Ireland.
If the clubs closed, hundreds of parents could be forced to give up their jobs, said PlayBoard.
The parents who would lose their jobs were those on low incomes who could least afford to do so, said Ms Hunter Blair.
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands