James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. My Department implements the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme, which provides a free preschool year to all eligible children before they commence primary school. The programme is a free and universal provision to which all children have access.

A number of additional provisions have been added to ensure the ECCE programme is more accessible to children with special needs. These include an exemption from the upper age limit for qualification under the programme where a child would benefit from starting primary school at a later age. In addition, children with special needs can apply to have the preschool year split over two years on apro ratabasis, for example, availing of the programme for two days a week in the first year and for three days a week in the second year.

I am aware that the Health Service Executive does, where possible, provide additional supports to children with special needs to enable them to avail of preschool services in mainstream preschool settings. My Department has been working with the Department of Health in the context of building better supports to facilitate children with special needs. The aim is to develop an agreed framework for the provision of resources to support special needs children in mainstream child care settings. However ,the issue of supports for children with special needs availing of services in mainstream child care settings remains a matter for the Department of Health and the HSE.

Figures relating to special needs children availing of the ECCE programme are not collated by my Department. However Pobal, which assists my Department in the implementation of child care programmes, conducts an annual survey of the early years sector. According to its 2013 report, of the 2,592 respondents to the survey, 1,254 services reported that they have at least one child with a disability in attendance. A total of 3,899 children with disabilities of varying types were accessing their services.

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