Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I stated previously in the House that I welcome the principle of introducing a preschool year for children. All the research indicates that children do better when they have had that opportunity. It is particularly valuable for disadvantaged children. Disadvantage comes in many forms. It may be financial or social disadvantage or due to poor quality parenting. All these children would benefit from such a scheme.

I want to speak tonight about a group of children who will not benefit and these are children with special needs. In some cases such children have significant obstacles to overcome if they are to benefit from later educational opportunities. The contribution a year in preschool can make for these children is of great value in helping them to cope with either mainstream school or a special needs school, if this is what is appropriate. Under the new scheme this is the one group which will not benefit. They will be excluded from the preschool year and may be excluded from playschool opportunities altogether for that particular year.

As the scheme is currently devised, from September 2010 it will only pay the preschool providers for a 15-hour week. For many special needs children, 15 hours is not a possibility as it is too long a time for them. Even if it is not too long, they will need a special needs assistant in order to attend playschool. The current practice is for them to attend for whatever period of time the special needs assistant is available to them. The special needs assistants' hours are being reduced. I am not aware of any case where a child had an assistant for 15 hours. The reality is they have no opportunity to attend because the State will only pay for them if they attend for 15 hours.

They cannot attend without assistance so the most disadvantaged children will be the only children who will not be able to benefit from the scheme. The scheme is not just inequitable, but it is daft and very short-sighted in that it will only build up problems and more expense for the future and great frustration for both the children and their parents.

From the perspective of the playschool providers, it will not be possible for them to allocate their limited school places to children who will only turn up for three or four hours a week and where the State will only pay for those who attend for 15 hours a week. The private playschool sector is facing significant upheavals in its business, moving virtually overnight from a situation where they were independent businesses tailoring their hours and times to the needs of their customers to becoming customers themselves of a one-size-fits-all State monopoly.

I do not know what forethought went into devising this scheme because it is fraught with issues which have been raised before. If all the children who are eligible for this scheme - numbering between 70,000 and 80,000 - turned up looking for a place in January, only a fraction of places will be available. I do not know how Dublin playschools will survive because the fee being offered is way below anything being charged in the Dublin area.

A scheme that effectively excludes children with special needs cannot be introduced. The irony is that the very Department which recognises the need for special needs assistants for disabled children attending school is the very Department which recognises the need for a preschool facility, yet this Department has devised a scheme which excludes the group that need it most and who would benefit most.

The Minister of State knows the additional burden and stress and worry that a special needs child places on a young, struggling family. Many families are discovering now that their child will not benefit from this scheme. In the coming months more families will discover that the scheme does not seem to accommodate their children.

I have to believe that this anomaly was not intentional and that the Minister will amend the scheme to ensure that disabled children can avail of it. I have to believe the Minister will amend it in a way that does not require either the preschool providers or the children's families to take the hit because many families are wondering whether they will have to pay. They wonder if their children will be allowed into the playschools because the limited number of places will inevitably be given to those who will attend for 15 hours a week.

There is still time to retrieve this situation and I ask the Minister of State to do so as quickly as possible and cause the least amount of anxiety and stress to the families and parents of these disabled children.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I will reply on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.

I wish to reaffirm the Government's commitment to people with disabilities and to the national disability strategy and its long-term goals and objectives which we will continue to pursue in the coming years in partnership with all the key stakeholders.

The early childhood care and education scheme is being introduced from January 2010 as a free scheme to benefit children in the key developmental period prior to commencing school. The scheme will allow eligible children to avail of a free preschool place in the year before they commence school. The scheme is open to all private and voluntary preschool services which are notified to the Health Service Executive or registered with the Irish Montessori Educational Board. Participating services will be required to provide an educational programme consistent with the principles of Siolta and appropriate to the age of participating children. As a free preschool year, participating services must agree to provide the service in return for a capitation fee of some €2,450 per annum.

The scheme is a general one and participating services will be required to make reasonable accommodation for children with special needs in accordance with the Equal Status Acts 2000 to 2004. However, the scheme takes account of a number of issues to accommodate children with special needs. While the age range in which children will qualify for the scheme is, generally, between three years three months and four years six months on 1 September each year, exceptions are allowed where a child has been assessed by the HSE as having a special need which will delay his or her entry to primary school. In such cases, the preschool year relevant to such children will be taken as their qualifying year. Additionally, the general requirement that a child would be expected to attend four or five days each week will not apply to children with special needs where a shorter week would be more appropriate to their needs. Where a preschool service is a specialist one providing a service to children with special needs and additional flexibility in the arrangements for the scheme is required, this will also be considered.

Since 2005, the Government has provided significant additional resources for services and supports for effecting real change in the development of services for people with disabilities and as a demonstration of the ongoing commitments to people with disabilities, an additional €10 million was provided in the 2009 budget to continue the development of services for children with disabilities. A critical element of the ongoing development of disability services is the requirement to provide financial support for the development and implementation of a wide range of services provided to children with disabilities.

In the current challenging economic environment, there is a responsibility on all publicly funded services to review the way in which services are delivered and ensure resources are used to maximum effect. The HSE and voluntary disability service providers are working together to ensure that all of the existing resources available for specialist disability services are used in the most effective manner possible. This involves a collaborative approach at local health office level in dealing with arising situations, development of criteria for identifying needs in a consistent manner nationally, identification of capacity to increase provision within existing resources, reviewing existing service arrangements in the context of appropriate response and service efficiency and developing innovative responses to meet requirements.

There is no additional capitation available under the ECCE scheme to preschools on foot of having children with special needs. However, ad hoc arrangements have been made in some local health offices utilising home support-personal assistant resources to support children with specific difficulties accessing mainstream preschool services. The provision of such supports is dependent upon the assessed needs of the child and the resources available. In the current challenging financial environment, there are many competing priorities and the HSE is obliged to use the resources available to it in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The Department of Health and Children and the HSE are working closely to manage the considerable budgetary challenges in this regard. The cross-sectoral team on disability comprising representatives from the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Education and Science, the HSE and the National Council for Special Education will be considering the provision of educational supports to children with disabilities in the coming months. Additionally, the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs will continue to fund training in the child care sector, including training courses which equip child care workers with the skills to support the integration of children with special needs into mainstream services.