Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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124. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will provide extra resources to child care providers in respect of children with additional and special needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7976/15]

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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Will the Minister to provide extra resources to child care providers in respect of children with additional and special needs?

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The ECCE programme is one of a number of child care support programmes implemented by my Department to assist parents to access quality child care services. The programme, which provides one free preschool year to qualifying children before they commence primary school, is a free and universal programme to which all children, including those children with special needs, have access. The issue of access to the free preschool year for children with special needs was taken into account when the free preschool year was launched and a number of measures were introduced to make the programme more accessible for these children. The measures include an exemption from the upper age limit for qualification under the programme where a child is developmentally delayed and would benefit from starting primary school at a later age. In addition, children with special needs can apply to have the preschool year split over two years on a pro ratabasis, for example, availing of the programme for two days a week in the first year and for three days a week in the second year, if that would be in the child's best interest.

The majority of children with special needs avail of the free preschool year in mainstream child care services. I am aware that the Health Service Executive assists, where possible, children with special needs who may require additional support to enable them to avail of preschool services in mainstream settings, but the fact that this is not nationally consistent is a source of concern for me. My Department has been working with the Departments of Health and Education and Skills to build better supports that will facilitate children with special needs. The aim is to develop an agreed framework for the provision of resources to support children with special needs in mainstream child care settings.

I have established a high-level interdepartmental group to examine the issue of future investment in early childhood care and education and child care for school-going children. As part of its work, the group will consider how best to make appropriate provision for children with special needs who are accessing mainstream child care services. I have asked the group to report to me by the summer.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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As the Minister knows well and has mentioned, the provision for children with disabilities or special educational needs is limited in the extreme in the child care area. Where it is available at all, it is very limited and inconsistent throughout the country. The measure of any society is how it supports the most vulnerable members, and surely young children with additional and special needs are the most vulnerable people in society. Early intervention, particularly in this area, provides a major return. We need to do the right thing with this.

I ask the Minister to take the issue of resources for children with additional or special needs out of the wider review and deal with it immediately.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The interdepartmental group will be critical in assessing these issues. Children with special needs should not be taken out of that group but should be treated within that group with the same respect and degree of analysis and scrutiny as all other groups. As I said, many children with disabilities participate in the free preschool year without seeking the exemptions that I mentioned earlier. The figure for take-up of those provisions is far smaller than the number of children in the programme who would be entitled to do so.

This area is one that concerns me. A good start in life is critical, and nowhere more so than when one has a child with special needs. What we all want for our children is that they reach their full potential. By investing in children with special needs early in life, one reduces their dependence on others later in life in a major way.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I hope the Minister is not suggesting that I wish to take these children out of the wider review for any negative reason. The reason I ask that they be dealt with separately from the review is to ensure that their special needs can be adequately and urgently addressed. I ask the Minister to seriously consider doing something immediately for children in this regard.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I would not suggest that. Deputy Healy's concern, interest and bona fides in this area are clear and sincere. However, I am pointing out the dangers of unintended consequences. Taking this group out of the main group will not serve their purposes as well as leaving them in the mainstream group. The thrust of our educational approach for children with special needs is to support them in the mainstream as much as possible, for a host of reasons which I will not discuss now. As the parent of a child who had particular special needs early in life and whose outlook was very poor, I can state that keeping him in the mainstream was a major goal for us and it yielded huge results.