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

I thank the Deputy for the question. I was very pleased to announce a package of €85 million extra investment in child care, including important improvements to the early childhood care and education, ECCE, preschool programme.

At present, the ECCE programme covers children who have reached the age of three years and two months by 1 September of the relevant year. From September 2016, I am expanding the ECCE programme to allow children to access free preschool from the time they are three years of age until they start primary school. There will be three intakes of eligible children during the preschool year. Children who reach the age of three between April and August can access the programme from September, children who reach the age of three between September and December can access the programme from January, and children who reach the age of three between January and March can access the programme from April.

The number of weeks of free preschool a child will benefit from will depend on their birth date and the age at which they start primary school. This number ranges from 38 weeks for children born between April and August, who start school at the age of four, to 88 weeks for children born between January and March who start school at the age of five. This equates to an estimated 23 additional weeks on average.

The number of children benefiting from the ECCE programme will increase from 67,000 to more than 127,000 in a given year. This extended free preschool provision was first recommended by the expert advisory group on the early years strategy in 2013. It was also one of a series of recommendations of the recent interdepartmental group on future investment in child care which I established in January last. The group consulted widely with a range of stakeholders, including the early years sector, during the course of its work. The recommendation was included in the report of the interdepartmental group which I published in July to facilitate a further debate on how best to meet the needs of parents and children.

I have recently met senior representatives from the early years sector to discuss this and other improvements that were announced as part of the €85 million investment package in budget 2016. The meeting was positive and constructive, with all parties expressing commitment to work together on the issues of capacity and high-quality preschool provision. My Department will be working closely with the early years sector to build capacity in time for the first intake in September 2016 and for subsequent increased availability in January and April 2017.

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