Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I have been honest, fair and I have said that Fr. Healy had other things to say about it. Deputy Costello can quote as he wishes, but it is important that the key issue of this budget is the fairness of the tax regime. If Fr. Healy has said that it is fair, there must be some grain of truth in that.

The other major development in the budget is in regard to the banking issue. Everybody in this House would agree it is something that had to be done because credit is not circulating in this economy. The lack of credit is sucking the life blood out of businesses and threatening the security of jobs. Without a radical departure from where we were at, we would offer no lifeline to the various businesses that are trying to survive through this very deep recession. The details as to whether the system will be mandatory and how the various assets will be valued against EU rules and guidelines remain to be worked out and constitutional issues also have to be considered. Nevertheless, I believe we can all agree that an agency such as this is required. Rather than bailing out the banks as is the rhetoric we hear from time to time in this House, one need only note the value of bank shares this morning to realise it is not something about which the banks were delighted.

I want to devote the remainder of my time to referring to the proposal made by the Minister for Finance yesterday on an early preschool year to replace the early child care supplement. There are always arguments against any measure and I have often said that not being able to do everything should not be an excuse to do nothing. Replacing the early child care supplement with a free preschool year is obviously not without its challenges but it is an enormous step forward for the sector and it is a very far-sighted measure, which has been welcomed throughout the sector. I commend all involved, including the Minister for Finance, on agreeing to this measure. It will provide a lifeline for the sector.

With effect from 1 January 2010, a child aged between three years and seven months and four years and ten months will be able to avail of a free preschool year in the various facilities around the country. Thereafter, on 1 March each year, all children aged between three years and three months and four years and six months will be able to avail of the service. The age cohort was specifically designed to ensure flexibility for parents and to ensure the capacity would be able to be met by the existing provision of child care places, a point to which I will return later.

The year will be paid for by way of capitation paid by the OMC to the various providers. For playschools operating 38 weeks per year, each child in the age cohort will be entitled to three hours per day, five days a week. The grant will be €64.50 per week for full-time and part-time centres operating 50 weeks. Two hours 15 minutes will be provided five days a week over the 50 weeks. In that case the grant will be €48.50 per week. In both cases this will aggregate to just over €2,400 per child. When it is considered that the early child care supplement at its half rate was worth €2,500 over the five years of a child's early years, the compensating measure, which is far more targeted, is welcome, progressive, radical and far sighted. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has developed a framework for early learning which will be launched in the next couple of months, so it is very fortuitous that this decision has been taken. This will provide a curricular framework throughout the country for all aspects of early childhood care and education, from birth to six years.

In addition to this, the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education, CECDE, which is being subsumed into the office of the Minister of State with responsibility for children, developed a quality framework, known as Síolta. Síolta provides a complementary quality assurance measure-----

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