They are the toys for TDs’ boys and girls. The Oireachtas has spent €25,000 of public money on playthings for children at the Leinster House creche since the facility opened in 2006, including puppets, puzzles, soft toys and multicultural dolls.

The facility, which was established three years ago to make national politics more family-friendly, has been running at a loss since it opened. To offset this, the Oireachtas agreed to pay for the creche’s toys. It has also agreed to meet the cost of the facility’s rent, utilities and some of its cleaning bills until it starts to turn a profit.

Some of the toys might suit budding politicians. A “bank game”, costing €69, a €15 cash register and a set of pretend euro coins and notes might train a future finance minister.

A €25 junior microscope and a €25 doctor’s case could be inspiration for a would-be minister for health, while the €30 train set is ideal for a transport minister of the future. A €15 farm set and a €35 soft toy named Clara the Cow would suit an aspiring agriculture minister, and there’s a €6 pretend mobile phone so youngsters can start practising how to text and tweet from the Dail or Seanad chambers.

For politicians’ children hoping to get into the diplomatic service, there’s a globe which cost €30, while the large volume of art materials and musical equipment are essential for any child wishing to become an arts minister.

Fianna Fail’s close ties with the building sector are apparent in the high proportion of construction toys, including diggers and a €15 “mega tipper truck”. But the Green party may also be showing its influence with €7 toy flowers and leaves, and a €103 market stall.

An €84 puppet theatre could be an ideal toy for a future taoiseach trying to learn how to control his cabinet, while the blindfold, which cost €8.70, could be useful when denying knowledge of a scandal.

Among the more expensive toys bought by the Oireachtas for Kids Inc, the facility’s private operator, are a set of fraction circles for €207, a toy octopus for €113 and a €102 pink tower, a staple of Montessori creches.

Although the facility is losing money, fees at the creche are subsidised. It costs €842 per month for babies, €796 for toddlers and €729 for Montessori students up to the age of five, about 20% less than private-sector rates in Dublin city centre.

The facility was opened after politicians indicated in a 2005 survey, conducted by the Oireachtas, that there was demand for at least a dozen places. However, since opening, the facility has struggled to fill its 25 places. Last year, only three TDs and senators used the creche regularly.

Because of the poor take-up of places by TDs, senators and employees of the Oireachtas, the facility was opened up to children of employees of government departments in 2007. Most children there last year belonged to civil servants working outside Leinster House.

Senator Ivana Bacik of Labour is one of the few politicians to use the creche and has defended the taxpayer subsidy, saying it’s “important for the future participation of women in politics”.

Bacik said that the creche would grow in value as more women entered politics. “Only 13% of TDs are female, and even fewer have young children, so the uptake was never going to be huge,” he said. “But if it enables even a small number of women to enter or remain in political life, it will have served its function.”

An Oireachtas spokesman said the toys were bought “as they are deemed to be covered as ‘equipment’ ”. She said: “The office subsidises the facility by providing accommodation, including furniture, fittings and equipment; utilities; electricity and heat; maintenance, and some cleaning.”

The Oireachtas also intends to provide a “financial subsidy” to Kids Inc as compensation for losses incurred by the creche. “However, to date, no direct financial subsidy has been paid,” the spokesman said.

The creche’s operator has a contract until May 2010 but a review of the facility warned that it could be closed when this expires, “in the event of continued low Oireachtas usage levels and scarcer office resources to oversee its management as a non-core activity of parliament”.

The Oireachtas may re-tender the contract next year, seeking an operator to run it on a “purely commercial basis, with no financial input”.

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