Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 238: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding an application for the early childhood care and education scheme in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Louth; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39779/10]

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 provides for a free pre-school year to eligible children in the year before they commence primary school.

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 and children born between 2 February 2007 and 30 June 2008 will be eligible in September 2011. The child in question will be eligible in September 2011 but if her parents decide to send her to primary school at that time she will not be able benefit from the ECCE scheme. There is no provision under the scheme to enrol children that are below the qualifying age.

The objective of the ECCE scheme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to all children in the 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. 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.