Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 191: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding the early childhood care and education scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13598/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I have responsibility for implementation of the free Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme which was introduced in January of this year.

The objective of the scheme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to all children in the key developmental year before they commence primary school, with appropriate age related activities and programmes being provided within a particular age cohort. As a result, the scheme is open to children who are aged more than 3 years and two months and less than 4 years 7 months at 1 September each year. I am pleased to say that approximately 90% of pre-school services are participating in the scheme and over 51,000 children, or 80% of children in the year before starting school, are availing of the scheme.