Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 169: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the preliminary costings on the proposed year of pre-school announced in the 7 April 2009 budget; the participation levels assumed in the costings; the capital grants which are envisaged to establish the service; the annual running costs; and her role in the development of the scheme and its implementation. [16166/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware I have responsibility for the introduction of the recently announced scheme to provide a free Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

The scheme is expected to cost approximately €170 million per annum. This figure has been estimated on the basis that the capitation grant of over €2,400 per annum will be paid in respect of some 70,000 participating children. As parents are not required to enrol their children in the pre-school year, a participation rate of 90% of eligible children has been assumed. As the age range for eligibility covers a 15 month period (i.e. children must be aged between three years three months and four years six months at 1 September), the participation rate of 90% takes account of the full cohort of children who could be enrolled. (The number of live births in Ireland in 2005 was 61,042, rising to 64,237 in 2006 and 70,620 in 2007.) As the majority of children start school at the age of five, most participating children in January 2010 are expected to be aged four with a significant minority aged three. The 15 month age range is provided for to facilitate parents in aligning their children's pre-school year with the year they commence school.

Pre-school services include full- and part-time day care services as well as sessional playschool services and a wide range of fees apply across these services, which number almost 5,000. Almost 1,000 of these services are not for profit voluntary services participating in the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (CCSS) and the average fee charged for sessional playschool in these services is €50 per week. The annual capitation fee of over €2,400 amounts, in the case of a sessional playschool, to €64.50 per week over 38 weeks. For full- and part-time services providing a pre-school year of two hours 15 minutes per day, five days a week for 50 weeks, the annual capitation fee amounts to €48.50 per week. The capitation fee and its application on a weekly basis are considered reasonable. They also compare very favourably to the capitation fee paid to private and voluntary pre-school services participating in Northern Ireland's Pre-School Programme Expansion Scheme, which amounts to £30 per week.

Many of the 5,000 existing private and voluntary pre-school services will have already received capital grant aid under the Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) and or the National Childcare Investment Programme (NCIP). More than 65,000 additional child care places will have been created by the end of 2010 as a result of this investment. Additional capital funding to make more places available is not considered necessary and I am aware from representations received from pre-school services in recent months that many are currently reporting vacancy rates of up to 25% in their facilities. I am also aware of a number of people now considering investing in a child care business of their own, many of them existing qualified child care workers, as this new scheme will allow them a degree of certainty which exists in very few areas of economic life today. Finally, many services which to date have only been open in the morning, citing lack of demand for an afternoon session, are now considering offering an additional session to meet an increase in local demand. As I said at the time of the announcement, some instances of under-supply may arise in the initial period of implementation of the scheme, however my Office and the city and County Childcare Committees will monitor the situation carefully, to maximise the beneficial impact of the scheme for parents and children.

The scheme to provide a free Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) will be administered directly by officials in the Childcare Directorate of my Office, working in liaison with the Early Years Education Policy Unit of the Department of Education and Science which is co-located in my Office. The City and County Childcare Committees and the National Childcare Voluntary Organisations are also expected to play key roles in implementing the scheme. The cost of administering the scheme is expected to be small, certainly less than 1% of funding allocated to the scheme.