Vol. 533 No. 6
417 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science the amount spent or allocated for the provision of pre-school services for each of the years 1997 to 2001; and the number of pre-school places provided in each of these years. [9448/01]
My Department's involvement in the provision of pre-school services involves support for the early start pre-school pilot programme; the Rutland Street pre-school project; pre-schools for Traveller children and recent pre-school provision for children with autism.
The information requested by the Deputy in relation to these programmes is contained in the following table.
My Department is also involved in the implementation of the White Paper on Early Childhood Education which sets out a comprehensive strategy for the development of early education for children aged up to six years and for which an allocation of £4.1 million is being made in 2001.
|
Year |
Spend |
Number of Pre-School Places |
|
1997 |
£3.18m |
2,435 |
|
1998 |
£3.28m |
2,414 |
|
1999 |
£3.72m |
2,460 |
|
2000 |
£4.94m |
2,418 |
|
2001 |
£4.71m(projected figure) |
2,424 |
