Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 206: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the early childhood care and education scheme does not allow for child care places to be allocated to younger children who are not yet eligible for the scheme in circumstances in which parents whose children are eligible do not wish to avail of all five of the allocated sessions per week in the case of a pre-school (details supplied) in County Cork; the impact this has on child care providers who have empty spaces which they cannot fill, resulting in a loss of revenue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41449/09]

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 free Pre-school Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme which will be introduced in January 2010. The objective of the ECCE scheme is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to avail of free pre-school provision. An annual capitation fee of €2,450, or €2,850 where the higher capitation applies, is being paid to service providers for each child enrolled for the free pre-school provision under the scheme. Parents who may not have accessed a pre-school programme for their child until now will be encouraged to support their children's participation in the year on the basis of a daily attendance pattern, as will be the case when a child commences primary school.

As a result, the scheme will normally be required to be provided over five days each week. This is considered the most appropriate framework to ensure that children receive an appropriate level of early learning involving appropriate programme-based activities in the critical developmental year before they commence primary school. To facilitate services which currently accommodate a greater number of children than they have places for (i.e. on a pro-rata basis), during January to September 2010 services may participate in the scheme on this basis, in which case they will be paid in respect of the number of qualifying children attending per day rather than the total number of children per week. For the reasons stated above, this will not be continued beyond September 2010.