Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Cathaoirleach for his warm wishes. I welcome everybody in the Gallery, and particularly Seán Keane, a transition year student who is working with me this week, and who is here to make sure I do a good job on this Commencement matter.

At the outset, I wish to say I am taking this on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Foley. The Minister thanks Senator Scahill for raising this really important issue, and offering me the opportunity to respond on her behalf. Since 2016, as the Senator is aware, the access and inclusion model, AIM, has had a major impact on the lives of children with disabilities and the overall quality of learning and care. The Senator himself cited the statistic that 82% of parents and carers reported that AIM has benefited their child. It has been such a widely welcomed and much-needed support for families up and down the country, including, of course, in Roscommon. More than 35,000 children have received more than 80,000 targeted supports across 4,800 early learning and care services nationwide.

The 2025 budget allocation for the access and inclusion model, AIM, was €80.9 million, which represented a 41% increase on the 2024 allocation. This significant increase reflected the Government's ongoing commitment to supporting children with disabilities and additional needs to meaningfully participate in early learning and care. The 2026 budget, which we just passed recently, further increases AIM funding to €86.5 million. That will ensure continued expansion and sustainability of supports for children, parents, carers and, of course, service providers.

AIM funding provides a suite of universal and targeted supports across seven levels. The universal supports are designed to create a more inclusive culture in early learning and care settings, through training courses and qualifications for staff. Where universal supports are not enough to meet the needs of an individual child, targeted supports are available. These include things like equipment, therapeutic supports, the facilitation of a lower ratio of children to staff in preschool rooms, or funding for an extra staff member as a shared resource where a child with additional needs is present.

Access to AIM is based on the needs of the individual child. In the context of a preschool setting, that means they do not require a diagnosis. In line with the commitment in First 5, a whole-of-government strategy for babies, young children and their families for 2019 to 2028, an independent evaluation of AIM was undertaken in order to inform an extension of AIM beyond the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme as well as any potential enhancements to the model. This is the review and extension the Senator called for and is something the Government is absolutely committed to.

AIM has, as the Senator is aware, expanded beyond time spent in the ECCE programme, allowing children access to AIM targeted supports for an additional three hours a day during ECCE term and six hours outside of the ECCE term. The programme for Government, as the Senator campaigned for, commits to examining and expanding the AIM model and making it available to younger children. Officials in the Department are currently considering the policy implications and appropriate mechanisms to extend AIM to children aged under three. It is critical that any extension of AIM supports for this cohort are evidence-based and reflective of their needs. It is intended that, over time, all children with additional needs registered in the early learning and care services will have access to supports under AIM. It is therefore intended to also give consideration at a later date to an extension of AIM to children attending school-age childcare. Such an extension will also need to meet the different needs of children in the older age cohort. Both extensions will obviously require additional funding through the annual budget process.

Senator Scahill referenced a family he is working with, where the mam is an occupational therapist providing much-needed services to children and, perhaps, even adults right across her CHO level.The Senator raised a really important point. The childcare hours of some families in that situation are unfortunately reduced as a direct correlation in relation to their needs. I thank the Senator for raising and escalating this issue here today. As I said, the AIM is under review and this is something I will definitely take back to the Minister, Deputy Foley.