Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 Dec 2001

Vol. 546 No. 5

Written Answers. - Early Childhood Education.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

327 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of pre-school places funded by his Department for each of the past five years; his plans in this regard for 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32288/01]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

My Department's involvement in the provision of pre-school services currently 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 on the following table.

The provision of additional pre-school places for 2002 and future years will be considered by my Department in the context of the implementation of the White Paper on early childhood education – Ready to Learn – which sets out a blueprint for the development of the sector, with the aim of building on existing provision and assisting providers to raise the quality of provision. In this regard, I recently appointed St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, and the Dublin Institute of Technology to jointly undertake and manage a project to develop and support the provision of quality early childhood education in pursuance of these objectives.

The project, which will run for up to three years, will involve the establishment of a centre for early childhood development and education which will be jointly managed by the two colleges and will be staffed by a full-time director and project team with relevant professional expertise in the area of early childhood education. Funding for the project will be met from the £74 million allocation provided by the Government under the national development plan for the implementation of the White Paper.

Pre-school Provision

Year	Spend	Number OfPre-school Places
1997	£3.18 million	2,435
1998	£3.28 million	2,414
1999	£3.72 million	2,460
2000	£4.94 million	2,418
2001	£4.71 million(projected figure)	2,424