Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Question 629: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if a child (details supplied) in County Westmeath will be approved for the early childhood care and education scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10669/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme was introduced in January 2010 and provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children in the year before commencing primary school. About 66,000 children, that is approximately 95% of children in the year before school, are availing of the free pre-school provision at this time.

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 at 1 September in the relevant year. This means, for example, that children born between 2 February 2007 and 30 June 2008 qualified for the free pre-school year in September 2011 and children born in July and August of 2008 will qualify for the programme in September 2012. This child will therefore be eligible to avail of the ECCE programme in September 2012. There are no exceptions for children who are below the qualifying age.

The objective of the ECCE programme is to make early learning in a formal setting available to eligible children in the year before they commence primary school. To achieve this, services participating in the pre-school year are expected to provide age-appropriate activities and programmes to children within a particular age cohort. For this reason, it is appropriate to set minimum and maximum limits to the age range within which children will qualify.

My Department also implements the Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme which provides funding to community childcare services to enable them to charge reduced childcare rates to low income and disadvantaged families. Parents who consider that they qualify for support under the this programme should contact their local City/County Childcare Committee to establish exactly what participating community facilities are available in their area. Westmeath County Childcare Committee may be contacted by telephone at 044 9335454 or by e-mail at info@westmeathchildcare.ie.