With Storm Barra hitting the country today Tuesday 7 December the Department of Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth is asking childcare services to be fully aware of local weather warnings and travel restrictions that may affect their service.

The safety and welfare of children, staff and parents should be carefully considered by each service.

DCEDIY is advising that all early learning and care and school-age childcare services covered by the Red Alert and Orange warning from Met Éireann should not open today on December 7. There is no requirement to apply for force majeure for services covered by the red and orange weather alerts.

The DCEDIY would like to remind all other services that if they are impacted by the storm, for example if there is a power outage, services can apply for Force Majeure through Pobal for any enforced closure in the normal way.