Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I stated previously in the House that I welcome the principle of introducing a preschool year for children. All the research indicates that children do better when they have had that opportunity. It is particularly valuable for disadvantaged children. Disadvantage comes in many forms. It may be financial or social disadvantage or due to poor quality parenting. All these children would benefit from such a scheme.

I want to speak tonight about a group of children who will not benefit and these are children with special needs. In some cases such children have significant obstacles to overcome if they are to benefit from later educational opportunities. The contribution a year in preschool can make for these children is of great value in helping them to cope with either mainstream school or a special needs school, if this is what is appropriate. Under the new scheme this is the one group which will not benefit. They will be excluded from the preschool year and may be excluded from playschool opportunities altogether for that particular year.

As the scheme is currently devised, from September 2010 it will only pay the preschool providers for a 15-hour week. For many special needs children, 15 hours is not a possibility as it is too long a time for them. Even if it is not too long, they will need a special needs assistant in order to attend playschool. The current practice is for them to attend for whatever period of time the special needs assistant is available to them. The special needs assistants' hours are being reduced. I am not aware of any case where a child had an assistant for 15 hours. The reality is they have no opportunity to attend because the State will only pay for them if they attend for 15 hours.

They cannot attend without assistance so the most disadvantaged children will be the only children who will not be able to benefit from the scheme. The scheme is not just inequitable, but it is daft and very short-sighted in that it will only build up problems and more expense for the future and great frustration for both the children and their parents.

From the perspective of the playschool providers, it will not be possible for them to allocate their limited school places to children who will only turn up for three or four hours a week and where the State will only pay for those who attend for 15 hours a week. The private playschool sector is facing significant upheavals in its business, moving virtually overnight from a situation where they were independent businesses tailoring their hours and times to the needs of their customers to becoming customers themselves of a one-size-fits-all State monopoly.

I do not know what forethought went into devising this scheme because it is fraught with issues which have been raised before. If all the children who are eligible for this scheme - numbering between 70,000 and 80,000 - turned up looking for a place in January, only a fraction of places will be available. I do not know how Dublin playschools will survive because the fee being offered is way below anything being charged in the Dublin area.

A scheme that effectively excludes children with special needs cannot be introduced. The irony is that the very Department which recognises the need for special needs assistants for disabled children attending school is the very Department which recognises the need for a preschool facility, yet this Department has devised a scheme which excludes the group that need it most and who would benefit most.

The Minister of State knows the additional burden and stress and worry that a special needs child places on a young, struggling family. Many families are discovering now that their child will not benefit from this scheme. In the coming months more families will discover that the scheme does not seem to accommodate their children.

I have to believe that this anomaly was not intentional and that the Minister will amend the scheme to ensure that disabled children can avail of it. I have to believe the Minister will amend it in a way that does not require either the preschool providers or the children's families to take the hit because many families are wondering whether they will have to pay. They wonder if their children will be allowed into the playschools because the limited number of places will inevitably be given to those who will attend for 15 hours a week.

There is still time to retrieve this situation and I ask the Minister of State to do so as quickly as possible and cause the least amount of anxiety and stress to the families and parents of these disabled children.

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