Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 201: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will reconsider the conditions of the free preschool year, where many parents are unable to avail of the scheme because of the age requirement; if her attention has been drawn to the discriminatory nature of the scheme, whereby some children attending a preschool year are entitled to breakfasts or lunches, while others within the same playgroup are not entitled; the difficulties that this presents at a practical level for the management of the playschool; the potential discriminatory nature of the scheme if applied as above; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34820/10]

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 202: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of children availing of the free preschool year scheme; the number of children who had signed up but later dropped out of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34821/10]

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of queries received by her in relation to the eligibility of a child to avail of the free preschool year arising from their age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34822/10]

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 204: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on the fact that a number of children will not be able to avail of the free school year because of their age, while at the same time the same children will be accepted into junior infants in a national school; her proposals to remove the discriminatory age requirements from the application of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34823/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 201 to 204, inclusive, 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. Children qualify for the free pre-school year where they are aged more than 3 years 2 months and less than 4 years 7 months in September of the relevant year. This means that children born between 2 February 2006 and 30 June 2007 are eligible for the free pre-school year which commenced in September 2010. The objective of the ECCE scheme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to all children in the key developmental year before they commence primary school. Services participating in the pre-school year are expected to provide appropriate age related activities and programmes to children within a particular age cohort. It is necessary, therefore, to target the pre-school year at a particular age cohort and to set minimum and maximum limits to the age range within which children participate in the scheme. The ECCE scheme provides for an eligibility range of almost 17 months and there are no plans to review this position.

In setting the minimum and maximum age limits, account was taken of a number of factors, including the variation in school admission policies and the fact that the majority of children commence primary school between the ages of 4 years 6 months and 5 years 6 months. In addition, provision is made for children to qualify at a later age if this is necessary to meet a particularly high age requirement in local primary schools or if children have special needs which make enrolment at a later age more appropriate. There is no provision for exceptions to the lower age limit for eligibility.

The scheme is open to both daycare and playschool services and additional hours availed of by parents can be charged for. The Child Care (Pre-School Services) (No. 2) Regulations require services to provide meals and snacks to children, the quantity and nature of which vary depending on the length of time the children are attending. Daycare services, where parents will be subject to charges for additional hours over and above the free pre-school provision, may include the cost of meals and snacks in their daycare fees or provide parents with the option to supply their own meals and snacks. Parents availing of the pre-school year in a sessional playschool service, where additional hours over and above the free pre-school provision will not normally be availed of, may supply their own meals and snacks or may choose to pay the service for meals and snacks provided, as an optional additional extra.

I am not in a position to advise the Deputy as to the number of queries received by my Office in regard to the qualifying age range for the scheme. Since the announcement of the scheme in April 2009 my Office has dealt with over 250,000 queries on a wide range of issues relating to the scheme. Over 4,000 pre-school services anxious to join the scheme, and thousands of parents anxious to avail of it for their children, have been in contact with my Office. It was necessary to give priority to dealing with these queries rather than recording the specific issue raised. Data is collected by my Office in relation to the number of qualifying children attending each service as services are funded on this basis. This is collected from service returns made at the start of each pre-school year. The date for receipt of returns for this year was 24 September and the data is still being processed. However, it appears at this point that some 63,000 children are participating in this academic year, representing 94% of children in the year before starting school, an extraordinarily high level of participation after such a short period of time.