Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 182: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if a child aged four at next birthday and enrolled for primary school in September 2011 can avail of the early school educational subsidy in January 2011; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2431/11]

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. Only children who are in the eligible age range at the commencement of the school year can enrol for the free pre-school provision during that school year. The child in question will be eligible in September 2011 but if the parents decide to send the child to primary school at that time s/he will not be able benefit from the ECCE scheme.

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.