Gorey creche placed up for sale after 19 years

Update 31/01/2026

A creche in County Wexford has been placed up for sale as a going concern after almost two decades of service…

The owners of a creche in Gorey, namely Erika’s Fairy Wood, have listed the property for sale as a going concern almost two decades of child-minding.

Should a sale go through, it would mean that there will be new owners of the popular Wexford creche – but it will remain operational.

With the retirement of the current owners, Noel and Erika Chambers, the property is just waiting for someone with drive to continue and evolve the outstanding work already done in developing the young of Gorey.

The full listing for the property can be viewed online via Warren Estates.

Wicklow-Wexford TD Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin raised the a creche related issue in a recent sitting in Dublin’s Leinster House. His speech can be read below:

“Childcare costs are completely out of control, with many people now paying the equivalent of a second mortgage. Shockingly, nearly 1,000 Early Years Childcare Services have closed their doors over the last 6 years. The Federation of Early Childhood Providers stated that “childcare facilities are closing because of rising costs and lack of funding from the government. Childcare costs in County Wicklow average more that €11,000 per year per child, while across the border in County Wexford they are more than €9,000 per year per child. 40,000 children are on now on waiting lists for childcare across the country,” Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin said.

“Shockingly, the government’s increase in core-funding was a paltry 5 cent per child. Government policy is destroying the childcare sector.”

“In Gorey, Erikas Fairy Wood creche has only seen a 7% increase in ECCE capitation in the last 16 years. ECCE only covers for 15 hours per week but service providers cannot claim for welfare for the 14 weeks they are closed. The administration, box-ticking bureaucracy that is strangling so many groups all across Ireland is forcing childcare staff to become unpaid admins for the government, Pobal and Túsla.”

“Erika offered the business to your office as part of the your plan to nationalise childcare, but you declined,” he said.

The Wexford TD further questioned how families can survive with the cost-of-living crisis. He noted how some families are spending on high rents alongside high creche costs, with a significant chunk of their earnings going on that: