Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Troy for the question. Fully 68,000 children are availing of the free preschool year in the academic year 2012-13 at a cost of €175 million. As Deputy Troy is aware, there are several additional provisions to take account of children with special needs. These include an exemption from the upper age limit for qualification under the programme where a child is developmentally delayed. In addition, children with special needs can apply to have the preschool year split over two years on a pro rata basis - for example, availing of the programme for two days a week in the first year and three days a week in the second year. Applications for these exemptions can be made prior to the child's commencing the programme and they are granted to all eligible children. However, most children with disabilities participate in the free preschool year without seeking these exemptions. Therefore, the figure for the take-up of these provisions is far smaller than the number of children in the programme. There are many more children with disabilities in the programme availing of the general one-year scheme.

My Department has been actively working with the Department of Health, specifically the office of disability and mental health, in the context of building better supports to facilitate the inclusion of special needs children in mainstream preschool settings. Furthermore, budget 2013 includes a capital funding programme providing grants under four strands, one of which was specifically for grants to improve the accessibility of services for children with disabilities. This was secured and included by my Department in the budget.

I believe a second year would be particularly beneficial for children with special needs and I would like to be in a position to deliver on this. However, the introduction of a second preschool year for children with special needs alone at this point would require the introduction of a detailed evaluation and appeals process, which would require extra funding. I discussed the issue with the National Disability Authority last year. The representatives of the authority were not in favour of a second year for children with disabilities on their own. They took the view that it would not be in line with the mainstream policy for children with disabilities. In other words, they would prefer a second year to be available to all children, and children with disabilities would be able to benefit from that.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Future developments relating to early years care and education are being considered as part of the preparation of the new national early years strategy. The report of the expert advisory group, Right from the Start, sets out a wide range of recommendations for consideration and will contribute substantially to the final draft of the early years strategy. One of the recommendations in the report for consideration in the preparation of the strategy is to extend the free preschool provision, but only after achieving higher quality standards, more investment in training and mentoring and professionalisation of the early years workforce.

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