Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 864: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number and percentage of children in pre-school education; if she does not have such figures, her plans to compile same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10101/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the vast majority of support for childcare, including pre-school education, is not provided by my Department, but is now provided by the Office of the Minister for Children under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) 2000-2006 and its successor programme, the National Childcare Investment Programme.

Under the EOCP programme, close to €500 million has been expended on childcare and places created will be in the region of 41,000 by the time the programme has been exhausted. Investment of €575 million under the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-2010 aims to create an additional 50,000 places. 10,000 of these places will be for pre-school children. In relation to my Department's involvement with the provision of pre-school and the numbers and percentage attending, the main areas of provision at the present time are for children with special needs and children from a disadvantaged setting.

The Early Start pre-school project operates in 40 primary schools in designated areas of urban disadvantage offering provision to some 1,680 children across Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Drogheda and Dundalk. My Department also funds 46 pre-schools for Traveller children, catering for approximately 500 pupils.

In the special needs sector, there are currently 16 pre-school classes for children with autism located throughout the country. In addition to this, 12 stand-alone autism facilities that provide an applied behavioural analysis (ABA) model of response to children with autism cater for a number of children of pre-school age. My Department sanctions home tuition grants for children with autism who are of pre-school age and for whom a home educational programme is considered appropriate — grants for some 200 such children are currently in payment.

Under DEIS, the action plan for educational inclusion, my Department is developing supports for early childhood education which will complement and add value to existing childcare services in disadvantaged areas. My Department does not have a list of the numbers and percentage of children in pre-school education as a whole, however this information may be available from the Office of the Minister for Children.