Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 560: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the Annual Competitiveness Report of the National Competitiveness Council, which found, inter alia that less than 50% of four year olds are in education compared with all French and Spanish children and more than 90% of children in Denmark, Britain and Hungary; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39102/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Early Years Education in Ireland covers the period from birth to six years. 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, which was 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.

Also, 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 child-care services in the most disadvantaged communities with a view to ensuring that the overall care and education needs of the children concerned are met in an integrated manner.