John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

commends the Government on its decision to introduce a free preschool year in early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme with effect from January 2010 and supports:

— the fact that the Government will re-direct over €170 million in savings from the removal of the early child care supplement in 2010, to provide for the introduction of a free ECCE scheme which has long been a key objective of the sector in accordance with international best practice;

— the fact, following a decade of investment of over €1 billion in developing a quality child care infrastructure, including the creation of 65,000 additional child care places, there are almost 4,700 preschool services notified to the Health Service Executive;

— the efficiency with which the scheme is being implemented, including the fact that applications will be accepted from 8 June, within nine weeks of the scheme's announcement, ensuring that some 70,000 children due to commence primary school in September 2010 will not miss out;

— the action taken to make comprehensive information in regard to the scheme available from the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs from 20 April 2009 and the fact that 5,000 information packs will be sent to all existing and prospective preschool services on 5 June 2009;

— the child-centred approach of the scheme while at the same time its design to maximise flexibility for parents and service providers, including smaller services in rural areas;

— the proposal to contact parents of preschool children in the coming months with full details of the scheme and that they will be able to finalise enrolment of their children in participating services from October 2009, three months in advance of its introduction;

— the introduction and supports provided for additional requirements for quality in preschool services, including qualification levels and the implementation of Síolta; and

— the fact that equality of opportunity is a core principle of the Scheme so that all children will have equal access to a universal system of early childhood care and education provision.

I apologise on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, who cannot be present because he is attending a special Cabinet meeting.

I welcome the opportunity to provide details of the free preschool year in early childhood care and education, ECCE. The introduction of the scheme is one of the most significant developments in early childhood care and education that has taken place in Ireland to date. Building on the progress made over the past decade in terms of investing in child care and developing educational frameworks for young children, we are now taking the first major step in providing universal preschool education for all children.

Children will be eligible for the free preschool year when they are aged between three years and three months and four years and six months on 1 September of each year. Exceptions will be made where a child has special needs or to accommodate children due to the enrolment policy of a local primary school.

Research underpins the importance of delivering preschool education in a consistent format based on an appropriate educational framework. For this reason, the preschool year scheme has been designed to provide some 570 hours for each participating child. Delivery in this regard will be on a weekly basis over the course of each year. Where children attend a sessional play-school, they will receive three hours per day each week over 38 weeks. To take account of the fact that young children are cared for in a variety of settings, a child attending a full-time or part-time service will receive two hours and 15 minutes per day each week for 50 weeks.

An annual capitation fee of over €2,400 will be paid to participating service providers. This is equivalent to €64.50 per week where a service provider participates for 38 weeks and €48.50 per week where it participates for 50 weeks. Service providers will be paid in advance at the start of each term.

With regard to the free preschool year, participating service providers must agree to provide the service in return for the capitation grant. This does not preclude a service provider from charging for additional services provided these are clearly optional to parents. Optional services can include the provision of additional hours, over and above the free preschool year requirement, and additional services in the form of various one-off or ongoing activities, such as outings or birthday parties, and specific teaching resources such as dance, music or food.

By their nature, full-time or part-time service providers will offer hours in addition to those associated with preschool provision and sessional play-schools can offer an additional 30 minutes per day. However, providers must ensure that all such additional services are offered and charged for on an optional basis and are not compulsory. A parent's agreement cannot be a condition of initial or continued enrolment. It is also essential that appropriate programme-based activities be provided to children not participating in an optional activity where this takes place during the required period of preschool provision.

Flexibility is also provided for where a sessional service is, for good reason, unable to operate over five days. Such cases will be considered and, where accepted, will be accepted on the basis that they provide a service for three hours and 30 minutes per day for four days in each of 41 weeks per year.

Up to 70,000 children are expected to participate in the scheme following the early stages of its introduction when the pattern of enrolments in the year prior to starting primary school settles into place. A sufficient number of preschool places is expected to be available based on existing capacity in the sector and it will be open to all preschool service providers, of which there are almost 5,000, to participate. There has been significant interest in the scheme since its announcement and there have been many calls to the Department seeking details of the application process.

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