Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 290: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason a person (details supplied) in County Clare has not been facilitated; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36188/10]

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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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 when they are aged between 3 years 3 months and 4 years 6 months in September of the relevant year. Based on the information provided by the Deputy, the child in question is not within the qualifying age range for the scheme in the current school year but will be eligible in September 2011. It is accepted that the child in question will not be able to avail of the free pre-school year in September 2011 if he commences primary school at that time, at the age of 4 years and 3 days.

Exceptions are allowed to the upper age limit for the scheme in certain circumstances, for example, where a child is developmentally delayed and would benefit from participating in the pre-school year at a later age. Exceptions to the lower age limit are not provided for. This is because the objective of the free pre-school year is to make early learning in a formal setting available to all children in the year before they commence primary school and 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 age range of almost 17 months which is provided for under the scheme is extensive and takes account 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. Arrangements for the 2010/2011 pre-school year are now finalised.