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

I acknowledge the considerable support of the child care sector, along with the flexibility of child care providers and staff, in ensuring the range of child care support programmes administered by my Department are implemented.

From September 2016, I am expanding the free preschool programme to allow children enrol in free preschool from the time they are three years of age and to remain there until they start primary school.

Following the budget announcement, I met with senior representatives from the early years sector to discuss the measures announced as part of the budget package. The meeting was positive and constructive, with all parties expressing commitment to work together on the issues of capacity and high quality preschool provision.

As a result of the budget extension, the number of children benefiting from the programme is expected to rise from 67,000 to 127,000 in a given programme year. For the 2016-2017 programme year, it is estimated 89,500 children will be eligible to enrol in the programme from September 2016, an additional 22,000 from January 2017 and a further 15,500 from April 2017.

I decided to introduce this new measure from September 2016 to provide the early years sector with the time to build capacity to meet the increased demand. As the increased demand for the programme is not expected to peak until April 2017, this timeframe should allow preschool providers to make any necessary infrastructural or service changes, as well as to put in place extra staff resources to accommodate the additional demand.

I am satisfied there is already additional capacity in the early years sector to cope with some of the increased demand. The annual survey of early years services, conducted in December 2014, estimated there are more than 24,000 vacancies in early years services across the country, with almost 13,000 of these vacancies in sessional services.

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