Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 242: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the liaison within the Northern Ireland administration on pre-primary education programmes which has taken place; and the provision under way to standardise pre-primary education support on an all-Ireland basis. [28491/04]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Early childhood education and care in the State is a horizontal policy issue involving several Departments and agencies and I want to ensure that any future actions by my Department in the area of early childhood education are based on a collaborative approach with other Departments involved in the overall early childhood care and education sector. Meeting the overall objective of providing the best possible service to the communities and children involved requires that any educational provision by my Department take account of child care measures under the remit of other Departments.

To facilitate policy development in relation to early childhood education and care, my Department established the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education in October 2002 to develop within a three-year period a quality framework for early childhood education and to develop, through active research with existing programmes, targeted interventions for children who have special needs or who are disadvantaged. The centre is currently developing a conceptual framework of early childhood learning and development which will be completed in early 2005.

The centre has developed close relationships with the Northern Ireland Pre-school and Playgroup Association, which is an eminent NGO in the area of early childhood care and education in Northern Ireland. The centre has also co-operated with the Department of Education in Northern Ireland focusing on issues of pre-school expansion programmes, curriculum and quality assurance. The centre also contributes formally and in an advisory role to the work of the Derry based Lifestart programme, a home visiting and parent education project providing services across the island. On completion of the draft conceptual framework by the centre my Department will prepare a number of key policy options for progressing this issue.