On foot of last week's budget, I will be allocating €4.5m in Exchequer funding to support the implementation of the Pre-School Quality Agenda which will seek to support and assure higher standards in pre-school services.
Of this funding, €2.5m is being provided for the introduction of a new mentoring service for pre-school services and €1.5m is provided to support staff training to meet the new qualification requirements recently announced by my Department.
€0.5m of the funding will be allocated towards the cost of taking on additional pre-school inspectors. Additional funding is expected to be raised from a new model of annual registration fees payable by pre-school services, to be introduced as part of statutory registration.
The number of additional inspectors recruited to the Pre-School Inspectorate as a result of the funding allocated, and the location of these posts, will be a matter for the Child and Family Agency which is due to be formally established in January 2014.