Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs when she intends to publish the early year strategy; the level of consultation she has had with the relevant stakeholders; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54031/12]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is developing a new Children and Young People’s Policy Framework to cover the five year period from 2013 to 2017. It will build on Our Children - Their Lives, Ireland’s first children’s strategy which was published in 2000. This high-level policy framework will also facilitate the preparation of a number of more detailed strategies including Ireland’s first-ever National Early Years Strategy.

The Early Years Strategy is under development and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2013 and published soon thereafter. This Strategy will cover a range of issues affecting children in their first years of life such as health, family support, learning and development and care and education and will identify the structures and policies needed to improve early year's experience in Ireland. I have appointed an Expert Advisory Group to advise on the preparation of the Strategy. The Group comprises external experts from a range of specialties, including paediatrics, early childhood care and education, child protection and public health nursing, chaired by Dr. Eilis Hennessy of UCD.

The results of a public consultation undertaken as part of the development of the Children and Young People’s Policy Framework is currently being analysed. It is also proposed that there will be further focused consultation with key stakeholders in relation to the Early Years Strategy.