Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 November 2015
346. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if a second free preschool year is available from now until June 2016 for a child born on 3 May 2011 who has already availed of one free preschool year and who will start primary school in September 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39200/15]
View answerAt present, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides one free pre-school year for each eligible child before commencing primary school. Each qualifying child is entitled to one free pre-school year only. As this child has received the full free pre-school complement in the 2014-2015 academic year, no additional provision can be made.
The recent Budget decisions, which introduced an extended provision under the ECCE programme that allows children to access the free pre-school programme from the time they are three years of age until they start primary school, come into effect from September 2016. This extended provision, when fully rolled out, will mean that children will have access to free education - either in pre-school or primary school - from the age of three. The start-up date for the introduction of this new measure was decided so as to allow pre-school providers an adequate timeframe to make any necessary infrastructural or service changes and to put in place extra staff resources to accommodate the additional numbers benefitting from the programme, which are estimated to increase to approximately 127,000 per year from the current average of around 67,000 per year.
