Dan Neville
Question:212. Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the entitlement of a child (details supplied) in County Tipperary to free preschool; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3477/16]
View answerThursday, 28 January 2016
Questions (212)
Written answers
The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is implemented by my Department and provides free pre-school for all children before they commence primary school.
Children born between 2 February 2011 and 30 June 2012 are eligible to avail of the free pre-school provision in the current school year which commenced in September 2015. In Budget 2016 I announced the expansion of the ECCE programme which means that from September 2016 children can access the ECCE Programme from the time they are 3 years of age until they start primary school (once the child is not older than 5½ years at the end of the relevant pre-school year i.e. end June). Children born between 1 January 2012 and 31 August 2013 will be eligible to enrol for the programme in September 2016.
Based on the information provided by the Deputy, the child in question is eligible to avail of the free pre-school provision in the current school year and also to enrol for an additional 38 weeks free pre-school in the school year commencing in September 2016.