Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While it is welcome that additional resources are being allocated to this sector, there was widespread common ground on the need for issues of quality to be addressed across the sector. I hope that will still be a priority before the introduction of these additional weeks. From the Minister's reply, it is obvious this is not, in fact, a full second free preschool year, given the existing preschool year is 38 weeks and the Minister said that, on average, this second year will be an additional 23 weeks.

Has funding been set aside for the full 67,000 children who currently avail of the existing free preschool year or does the Minister expect fewer children to participate? What is the cost for a full second free preschool year extension?

See this speech in context