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Early Childhood Care and Education

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 November 2015

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Questions (131)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

131. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the first year and full-year cost of extending the early childhood care and education scheme annually to 48 weeks. [40858/15]

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Written answers

At present, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides 38 weeks of free pre-school to children who have reached the age of 3 years and 2 months by 1st September of the relevant year. From September 2016, I am expanding the ECCE programme to allow children to access free pre-school from the time they are 3 years of age until they start primary school. There will be three intakes of eligible children during the pre-school year: children who reach the age of 3 between April and August can access the programme from September; children who reach the age of 3 between September and December can access the programme from January; and children who reach the age of 3 between January and March can access the programme from April.

Under this extended programme, the number of weeks of free pre-school a child will benefit from will depend on their birth date and on the age at which they start primary school. This number ranges from 38 weeks (for children born between April and August who start school at age 4) to 88 weeks (for children born between January and March who start school at age 5). This equates to an estimated 23 additional weeks on average.

My Department estimates that the number of children benefiting from the ECCE programme will increase from 67,000 to over 127,000 in a given programme year.

The cost of this extended provision, which includes the cost of restoring capitation rates to providers to pre-2012 levels from September 2016, is estimated to be an additional €47 million in 2016. As this initiative will begin in September 2016, the total additional annual costs of this extended provision - estimated to be €112 million - will not be realised in full until 2017.

The cost of further extending this free pre-school provision from 38 weeks to 48 weeks (with effect from September 2016 ) in a given programme year would not be realised until 2017. This cost, which is estimated to be approximately €86 million, assumes all 127,000 children expected to benefit from free pre-school in the 2016/2017 programme year receives an additional 10 weeks free pre-school. It also assumes 33 per cent of children are attending higher capitation services (as is currently the case).

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