Dr. Naomi Feely:

One of the other cohorts that they were really concerned about when they were developing the model was children from Traveller families. There are specific parts of the Equal Start model that target Traveller families. The reason and rationale for that is that there are lower participation rates among Traveller children in early childhood education and care compared to the general population. They are specifically introducing measures that will provide supports for those families to enable them to access early childhood education and care and to enable their full participation within services when they do access them.