John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the early childhood care and education joint evaluation undertaken by the Health Service Executive and his Department to assess the levels of quality in State funded early childhood education provision was completed; the reason the report has not been published; the date when same will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25504/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The joint pilot inspection carried out by my Department's Inspectorate and the HSE's pre-school Inspectorate arose from an action included in the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Under this action, the two Inspectorates were required to co-operate on the development and pilot testing of a joint inspection arrangement for evaluation of early years provision in pre-schools funded the ECCE initiative. The report was presented to both my Department and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in November 2012. Arising from the findings of the joint evaluation, the two Departments are currently considering how best to develop and implement improved quality assurance processes for ECCE in the future. When the deliberations have concluded the report will be placed in the public domain.