Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I have responsibility for the implementation of the free preschool year in early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme which commenced in January of this year.

The introduction of the ECCE scheme was announced in April 2009 as part of the supplementary budget. A total of €170 million has been allocated to the scheme in 2010. The scheme is open to application by all preschool services notified to the HSE or registered with the Irish Montessori Education Board, IMEB. Approximately 4,000 preschool services, or some 85%, which met the criteria for the scheme are participating. There is at present no statutory basis for the ECCE scheme. The terms and conditions governing the scheme have been drawn up by my office on an administrative basis and are provided for in the contractual arrangements which govern the scheme.

Preschool services are paid a capitation fee, generally at the rate of €2,450 per annum, in return for providing the free preschool year to qualifying children. Services are required to provide appropriate programme-based activities for children in the qualifying age range. The early learning programmes provided must adhere to the principles of Síolta, the national framework for early learning developed under the Department of Education and Science. In addition, preschool leaders delivering the programmes and activities must hold minimum qualifications in early learning. A higher capitation rate of €2,850 is available to preschool services with more highly qualified staff.

All preschool services participating in the ECCE scheme were required to make a return to my office by 29 January 2010 giving details of the qualifying children enrolled and attending their services. While this will determine the level of funding payable to the services, advance interim payments were issued in January 2010 to all services in contract and where bank details had been provided. The returns are currently being processed by the child care directorate of my office, which administers the scheme.

I was delighted to announce yesterday that more than 51,000 children are participating in the scheme. This represents a very high take-up, particularly in the initial interim period in advance of the first full year of the scheme from September next. It should also be noted that some 2,500 children who would qualify for the ECCE scheme are availing of their free community child care subvention scheme, CCSS, which is also implemented by my office. The CCSS provides support funding to community child care services to enable them to charge reduced child care fees to disadvantaged and low-income parents. Parents qualifying for the highest rate of subvention will in many cases receive a higher funding level under the CCSS and for this reason have opted to avail of the preschool year under the CCSS. This means that the percentage of children availing of the free preschool year at this point is 85%.

The ECCE scheme is a universal scheme and is open to all children when they fall within the qualifying age range. To provide flexibility for parents and their children, the qualifying age range is three years and three months to four years and six months, measured in September each year. This means that all children aged more than three years and two months and all children aged less than four years and seven months will qualify. This allows for an age range of almost 17 months. Children who were aged three years and two months or slightly younger in September 2009 will qualify for the preschool year in September 2010. The upper age limit does not apply where children are developmentally delayed and would benefit from participating in the preschool year at a later age or where a particular issue arises with regard to school admissions policies.

While the great majority of children commence school between the age of four years six months and five years six months, it is accepted that some parents choose to send their children to primary school at an earlier age. The ECCE scheme allows for children to attend the preschool year and still commence primary school when they are just over four years and two months of age. However, the objective of the scheme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to all children in the key developmental year before they commence primary school, with appropriate age-related activities and programmes being provided to children within a particular age cohort. Targeting the preschool year at a particular age cohort is clearly fundamental to the scheme and it is necessary, therefore, to set minimum and maximum limits to the age range within which children will participate in the scheme each year. I am satisfied that the age range set for the scheme achieves a reasonable balance between supporting the provision of appropriate age-related programmes and activities and providing flexibility to parents and their children, and I have no plans to review the position.

See this speech in context