Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 187: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the services which will replace the early child care supplement from 1 January 2010; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16964/09]

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 Preschool year of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) which was announced recently by the Minister of Finance. The Early Childcare Supplement (ECS) will be withdrawn at the end of 2009 and will be replaced by the Preschool Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) from January 2010. This is a free scheme to benefit children in the key developmental period prior to commencing school. The scheme will allow eligible children to avail of a free playschool place in their preschool year, which will be provided for 3 hours per day, 5 days per week for 38 weeks. It will also allow eligible children in their preschool year who are attending full day or part-time daycare services to avail of a free session of 2 hours and 15 minutes per day, 5 days per week for 50 weeks. As the new scheme will be introduced from January next, the first full year will be from September 2010.

Participating children must, normally be aged between 3 years 3 months and 4 years 6 months on the 1st September of each year. Exceptions will be allowed where children have special needs or it is necessary to accept children at an older age due to the enrolment policy of the local primary school. Participating services will receive capitation of €64.50 per week where children attend for 38 weeks, and €48.50 where they attend for 50 weeks of the year. Services will receive payments at the start of each term. Where the child is attending full-day or part-time childcare, the service will be required to reduce the childcare fees by the amount of the capitation.

While the scheme will normally be required to provide services on a five day per week basis, transitional arrangements will apply during the initial period of January to August 2010, to allow services to adjust to the requirements of the new scheme. During this period, 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.

To ensure that a satisfactory standard of preschool provision is delivered, a minimum enrolment of 8 children is envisaged. Exceptions will be considered where, for good reason and subject to compliance with all other contractual requirements governing the scheme, a service has an enrolment of at least 5 children in their preschool year or there is a minimum enrolment of 8 children of which at least 3 are in their preschool year and the remainder would be eligible in the following year.

The scheme will be open to almost 5,000 private and voluntary preschool services and officials in my Office will be writing to these very shortly to provide further details and to advise them of the application process. Pre-School leaders will be expected to have a qualification in childcare to FETAC level 5 or 6 qualifications, or equivalent or to be in the process of completing their qualification. All services will be required to provide an educational programme consistent with the principles of Síolta and appropriate to the age of participating children. A national team of Síolta co-ordinators will assist services in meeting these standards.