Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 208: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the way she intends to address the roll out of accessible early childhood education and care. [34150/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Early Years Education in Ireland covers the period from birth to six years. Almost all five year olds and half of four year olds attend junior infant and senior infant classes in primary schools. Outside of the junior classes in primary schools, my Department's main role in the area of early years education encompasses targeted pre-school provision for children from disadvantaged areas, for traveller children and for those with special needs.

Currently, the Early Start pre-school project operates in 40 primary schools in designated areas of urban disadvantage and my Department also funds 46 pre-schools for Traveller children. In the special needs sector, there are currently 16 pre-school classes for children with autism located throughout the country and a number of children of pre-school age are catered for in 12 stand-alone autism facilities that provide an applied behavioural analysis (ABA) model of response. My Department also sanctions home tuition grants for children with autism who are of pre-school age and for whom a home educational programme is considered appropriate.

The bulk of early childhood care and education places in the country are financed by the Office of the Minister for Children and previously by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which has provided unprecedented levels of funding for childcare in recent years. €499.3m has been allocated to the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) 2000-2006 and some 41,000 places will have been created by the time the programme finishes. Going forward, childcare and pre-school provision will continue to attract substantial investment under the new National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010. €575m has been allocated to the new programme, which will also be administered by the OMC and aims to provide a proactive response to the development of quality childcare and pre-school services by supporting the creation of an additional 50,000 places and supporting a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of early childhood education and care, centred on the needs of the child.

Under the new action plan for educational inclusion DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), my Department is developing supports for early childhood education which will complement and add value to existing childcare services in disadvantaged communities with a view to ensuring that the overall care and education needs of the children concerned are met in an integrated manner.

Actions will initially be concentrated on those children aged from three up to school enrolment, who will subsequently attend the 190 urban/town primary schools serving the most disadvantaged communities. My Department is working in partnership with other departments and agencies in this regard and a strong emphasis will be placed on adding value to the work of other providers by embedding quality early learning within childcare provision. The Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education will provide advice on the future development and direction of pre-school measures for children in disadvantaged communities.

My Department is committed to the development of quality early learning opportunities for children. Following on from the publication of the White Paper on Early Childhood Education "Ready to Learn", the Centre for Early Childhood Development was established and this year published a comprehensive draft quality framework for early childhood education. In addition, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is developing a national framework for early learning, which will be relevant and useful to all those responsible for children's early learning and development. A new Early Years Education Policy Unit has been established within my Department and will be co-located with the Office of the Minister for Children, established by the Government in December 2005 to maximise the co-ordination of policies for children and young people and to provide an overall strategic policy framework to bring together and promote close co-operation between the relevant areas of my Department, the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.