Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for the question. I will outline the AIM programme although I understand the Deputy is well aware of it. The AIM programme is the model of support designated to ensure children with disabilities can access the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme. The main supports are grouped into universal or targeted supports. The universal supports are designed to create a more inclusive culture in early education and care settings through training courses and qualifications for staff. Where universal supports are not enough to meet the needs of an individual child to ensure that the child can meaningfully participate in ECCE programmes, targeted supports are available, such as specialised equipment, appliances or capital grants toward minor building alterations. Additional funding is available for ECCE settings where a child requires extra support either to reduce the child-to-adult ratio in the room or to fund an additional staff member as a shared resource with other children in the setting.

Crucially, access to AIM is based on the need of an individual child and does not require a diagnosis. In line with the commitment in First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families 2019-2028, an independent evaluation of AIM was undertaken. The purpose of this evaluation was to inform an extension of AIM beyond the ECCE programme as well as any potential enhancements to the model. The findings of the evaluation were published in January 2024 and informed the phased extension of the AIM programme. Additional funding was allocated in budgets 2024 and 2025 to support this development. From September 2024, children with a disability who are enrolled in the ECCE programme are now fully supported to access and participation in the ECCE settings beyond the time they spend in that programme, both in term and out of term. This allows children to access the AIM programme for an additional three hours a day during the ECCE term and six hours outside of the term. The programme for Government commits to examining and expanding the AIM programme to make it available to younger children. This comes back to the question the Deputy asked. We are committed to working to ensure the programme expands.

The AIM programme has been hugely beneficial in addressing the need of children within the early education setting but as with everything, there are challenges. The case outlined by the Deputy is one of the types of cases that I frequently meet throughout the country in the context of the challenges young families face. They have stark choices in what support they can reach out for. We are looking at bringing down the eligible age for the AIM programme. That would be a positive step.

As for practical supports, the Deputy mentioned the incapacitated child tax credit. While that is a generous benefit and it has increased incrementally over the previous two or three budgets, which is to be welcomed, it should be kept under review. It still is not adequate for the challenges faced by many families, particularly those with young children. Families face enormous challenges during that very stressful period of dealing with the difficulties a child may have. We also need to be very careful of the emotional trauma around this and make sure we are addressing the needs of both the child and the family.

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