17 childcare services are at risk of not being able to open tomorrow due to outstanding renewals or registrations, some of which relate to garda vetting.
Early years services have to renew their registration with Tusla’s inspectorate for the purposes of inspection and regulation every three years.
The child and family agency says services cannot continue to operate without renewing their registration.
Tusla said in a statement that it has opened a helpline today between 10am and 4pm which can be contacted on 061 461700 or by email ey.registration@tusla.ie.
The Federation of Early Childhood Providers says some creches have already been written to by Tusla and asked to close their doors until the registration process is complete.
The federation has called for a grace period for services to get their registration in order.
They say the closure of creches would impact hundreds of parents and children across the country.
Elaine Dunne, the chairperson of the federation, said a meeting should be arranged to ensure this does not happen again.
“An emergency meeting between Tusla and the provider representatives across the country must take place to ensure that this disruption to providers, families and staff does not happen again.”
“It’s an unnecessary stress to providers,” Ms Dunne added.
Tusla says that over 3,200 early years services renewed their registration by the deadline of 31 December 2025.
The agency said it is working through the weekend to assist providers to ensure they submit the relevant documentation so they can be registered before tomorrow, to minimise any disruption to services.