The Barcelona conclusions of the European Council of 16 and 17 March 2002 state that member states should remove disincentives to the female labour force and strive, in line with national patterns of provision, to provide child care by 2010 to at least 90% of children between three years and mandatory school age and at least 33% of children under three years of age.
The Department of Education and Science is responsible for the education of children. To date, 49% of all four year olds and virtually all five year olds are enrolled in infant classes in primary schools. Children can commence their primary school education provided they have reached the age of four years on 1 September of the academic year in question while compulsory education starts at six years.
My Department has traditionally been engaged in the formal education of children aged four years but is now committed to the education of children from birth to six years and through its agencies is setting down the education framework required for early years education. The centre for early childhood development and education is currently preparing the groundwork for this and has recently published a draft discussion document on a conceptual quality framework describing how children from birth to six years develop and learn. The draft discussion document also identifies appropriate learning goals and objectives.
In addition, the NCCA has just published a consultative document entitled Towards a Framework for Early Learning, which focuses specifically on learning throughout early childhood from birth to six years. Early childhood is a new area for the NCCA and to assist it in its work it has established a working group on early childhood education. The consultative document was developed as a basis for working in partnership with the early childhood sector to develop a framework to support children's learning throughout the early childhood period from birth to six years. The NCCA is in the midst of a consultative process to obtain the views of practitioners in the early childhood sector before the document is finalised.
My Department is this year providing €8 million for early education initiatives such as the early start pilot project, the Rutland Street project, pre-schools for Travellers and the work of the centre for early childhood development and education. However, in terms of the Barcelona declaration, it is the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform which has responsibility for child care provision to support parents in employment, education and training.
The issue of reaching the Barcelona targets is of great concern to the Government and in order to consider issues in the child care and early education arena, the Cabinet Committee on Children established an interdepartmental high-level working group on child care and early childhood education in June 2003. This interdepartmental working group, which is being chaired by the National Children's Office, is expected to report before the end of the current year.