Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 279: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position in relation to the early childhood care and education scheme (details supplied). [18080/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I have responsibility for the implementation of the new scheme to provide a free Pre-School year of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) which was announced recently by the Minister of Finance. Services participating in the scheme will be required to provide the pre-school year without charge. Parents who avail of the free pre-school year in a full or part-time service (i.e. 2 hours 15 minutes per day) will generally avail of additional hours in the service for which they will be charged. Parents who avail of the free pre-school year in a playschool sessional service (i.e. 3 hours per day) may be offered an additional 30 minutes per day for which they can be charged. Up to 2 hours per day can be provided as an optional extra where a playschool service complies with part-time service requirements. All charges made for additional service provision, including additional activities or services provided on an optional basis, must be agreed to by parents and appropriate programme-based activities must be provided to children not participating in any such additional activity.

Almost 5,000 pre-school services operate at present, including full- and part-time daycare services as well as sessional playschool services. The overheads or operational costs of these services vary and there is also a diverse range of fees charged. Almost 1,000 of the pre-school services are not-for-profit voluntary services participating in the Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (CCSS), with an average fee charged for sessional playschool of €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 2 hours 15 minutes per day, 5 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.

The scheme will normally be required to provide services on a five day per week basis. However, during the initial period of January to August 2010, services which are already accommodating children on a pro rata basis may continue to do so and the capitation grant will be set by reference to the number of children attending per day rather than the total number of children per week. This is a transitional arrangement to allow services to adjust to the requirements of the new scheme.