My Department's involvement in the provision of pre-school services involves support for the early start pre-school pilot programme; the Rutland Street pre-school project; pre-schools for Traveller children and recent pre-school provision for children with autism.
The information requested by the Deputy in relation to these programmes is contained in the following table.
My Department is also involved in the implementation of the White Paper on Early Childhood Education which sets out a comprehensive strategy for the development of early education for children aged up to six years and for which an allocation of £4.1 million is being made in 2001.