Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 September 2013
11. Deputy Lucinda Creighton asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the progress made to date in her plans to introduce a second early childhood care and education year for children with a learning disability; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38840/13]
View answer29. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the progress made to date on her plans to introduce a second early childhood care and education year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38601/13]
View answer38. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the progress made to date on her plans to introduce a second early childhood care and education year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38841/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 29 and 38 together.
The current free Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education - ECCE programme - was introduced in January 2010 and provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children before commencing primary school. Almost every pre-school service in the State (more than 4,300) is participating with over 68,000 children, or 94% of the eligible age cohort, availing of free pre-school programme in the 2012/2013 school year.
In line with the Programme for Government, I succeeded in maintaining the universality of the free pre-school year, including securing an additional funding requirement of €9.8m in 2012 to address increased demand due to an increase in births since 2009.
The programme includes a number of additional provisions which take account of children with special needs. These include an exemption from the upper age limit for qualification under the programme where a child is developmentally delayed and would benefit from starting primary school at a later age. In addition, children with special needs can apply to have the pre-school year split over two years on a pro-rata basis, for example availing of the programme for 2 days a week in the first year and for 3 days a week in the second year. Application for these exemptions must be made prior to the child commencing the programme. In addition, to improve the services available to children with special needs, my Department is working with the Office of Disability and Mental Health in the Department of Health, to examine how supports to facilitate the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream pre-school settings can be improved.
As I have outlined in response to an earlier question, My Department and I, along with key stakeholders including the HSE, are currently progressing an 8-point Pre-School Quality Agenda. The action being implement are designed to ensure the highest standards of care for children in pre-school and to ensure that parents and practitioners can have confidence in the regulation of the sector. I further believe that this Agenda must be implemented; and higher standard of quality ensured, in order to provide the key building blocks for any further extensive of universal childcare provision, including any proposal to introduce a second free pre-school year, which as I have indicated on numerous occasions is my ultimate objective.
There is an increasing body of Irish and International evidence which quantify the benefits of early year’s interventions in terms of improving children’s outcomes and in delivering significant economic and societal return to the state. I this context I believe the introduction of a second year would benefit children’s educational and developmental outcomes as well as proving significantly beneficial to children with special needs. In addition a second pre-school year would represent €2,500 to €3,000 worth of free childcare to parents and likely generate 4,000-5,000 new positions, albeit mostly part-time. The benefits of introducing a second year were further referred to in the OECD reports on Ireland published last week.
However, the introduction of a second pre-school year would require considerable additional funding, with the additional cost broadly in line with the cost of the current one year provision, which is €175 million. This funding is not currently available due to the financial constraints under which the Government is currently operating. However I would hope that this proposal is one which Government could continue to work towards as our public finances recover.
Finally, I have this week received the Report and recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group which I established to advice my Department and I on the preparation of Ireland first-ever Early Years Strategy. Longer term objectives for early years care and education, including extension of universal early years provision, supports for children with specific needs and ongoing improvements in quality will be further addressed in this Strategy.
