Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she is satisfied that there is sufficient pre-school places to allow the rollout of the pre-school year due to commence in January 2010; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17061/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the way the 38 week pre-school support will be rolled out to qualifying applicants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17049/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 100: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if, when families already avail of pre-school education, the charges will be reduced accordingly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17055/09]

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when she will outline the information which will be needed for claims in respect of the new pre-school supports; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17051/09]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 21, 50, 100 and 101 together.

The Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is being introduced from January 2010 to benefit children in the key developmental period prior to commencing school. The scheme will allow eligible children to avail of a free play-school place in their pre-school year, which will be provided for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 38 weeks. It will also allow eligible children in their pre-school year who are attending full or part-time day-care services to avail of a free session of 2 hours and 15 minutes a day, 5 days a 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. The PPS number of children wishing to avail of the scheme will be provided to my Office for the purpose of verifying the age eligibility of each applicant. Participating services will receive a capitation payment of €64.50 a 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 or part-time day-care, the service will be required to reduce the childcare fees by the amount of the capitation payment.

While the provider will normally be required to provide services on a five day a 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 each day rather than the total number of children in a week.

Up to 5,000 pre-school services, which will include more that 4,000 commercial childcare providers, will be invited shortly to participate in the new scheme. These services include full and part-time day-care services as well as sessional play-school services. These services must be notified to the Health Service Executive (HSE) or registered with the Irish Montessori Education Board. Officials in my Office will be writing to these providers very shortly providing them with further details and advising them of the application process.

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 childcare places will have been created by the end of 2010 as a result of this investment. I am aware from representations received from pre-school services in recent months that many services are currently reporting vacancy rates of up to 25% in their facilities. I am also aware that a number of people are now considering investing in a childcare business, and also that many existing 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.