Vol. 444 No. 7
158 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Education the way in which the locations for the pre-school pilot scheme, as recently announced, were decided; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that some of the selected locations already have community pre-school playgroups which will now be rendered redundant; and if her attention has been further drawn to the concern of these groups who have carried on until now on limited resources.
I recently announced the establishment of a pilot pre-school project in eight designated areas of disadvantage.
Decisions on the selection of locations for inclusion in the pilot pre-school project were taken after detailed consideration of needs across the disadvantaged areas. In this process, it was decided that the pilot phase would concentrate on large urban areas of greatest disadvantage.
In the case of each area chosen, the intention is that the pre-school project will serve children from the catchment area of the school to which the project is being attached. I would be most anxious that the projects now being established should not in any way interfere with existing pre-schools which I would see as continuing to serve their existing catchment areas. The pilot pre-schools should complement the existing playgroups and are not designed to compete with or take from existing services.
The Deputy will appreciate that playgroups for children in this age group have a more social and child care orientation. The pre-schools being established in the pilot project will have precise curricular objectives and parents will be encouraged to participate in the activities under the direction of the school personnel.
It is intended that the operation of the initial pilot projects will be monitored very closely over the coming year to ensure that this valuable new initiative delivers maximum benefit to the children concerned. I will be monitoring this process very closely to ensure that any concerns, such as those to which the Deputy refers, will be fully addressed.
