John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 677: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if any applications have been approved for the free place for pre-school under the early childhood care and education scheme for children with special needs in 2010 and if so the number of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32822/10]

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 678: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason she is not approving the free place for pre-school under the early childhood care and education scheme for children with special needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32823/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 677 and 678 together.

I have responsibility for implementing the free Pre-School Year in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme, which was introduced in January of this year and provides a free pre-school year to all children within a certain age range in the year before they commence primary school.

The ECCE scheme is a universal scheme which provides for one free pre-school year in early childhood care and education (ECCE) for all children within the qualifying age range. The scheme takes account of the fact that some children with special needs may benefit from a mainstream pre-school setting at an later age than would normally be the case, by allowing an extension of the upper limit of the age range within which children qualify. In addition, the scheme allows children with special needs to avail of the pre-school year on a pro-rata basis over two years, for example for two days per week in the first year and then for three days per week in the second year.

It is recognised that the introduction of the scheme has raised a number of issues in relation to service provision and supports for children with special needs and the need to ensure a coherent approach across both specialist and mainstream settings. While many children with special needs may require specialist services, others will benefit from attending mainstream services or a mixture of the two. To achieve these outcomes, earlier this year this office asked the office of disability and mental health to set up a working group to look at existing services and supports and the allocation of resources for pre-school children with special needs. This group is expected to report shortly following which the arrangements for children with special needs under the ECCE scheme will be further considered.

In the meantime while the scheme as initiated does not provide for any additional provision for children with special needs, pending any arrangements which are put in place following the report of the working group, a limited number of children with severe disabilities who had availed of the scheme in the introductory period of January to June 2010 have been approved for re-entry into the scheme in September 2010, the first full year of the scheme, on an exceptional basis in respect of that academic year only.

More than 53,000 children availed of the free pre-school provision in the period January to August 2010 and applications by approximately 63,000 children have been submitted for entry to the scheme for the school year which commenced in September. As a universal scheme available to all children, data in respect of the number of participating in the scheme who have special needs, is not collected.