Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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528. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will grant a child (details supplied) access to the early years education scheme in view of the availability of places at their preferred school, and the fact that their birthday falls within four days of the deadline; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30090/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The ECCE programme provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children. Approximately 68,000 children are availing of the ECCE programme in the current school year. Children are eligible to avail of 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. Children born between 2 February 2009 and 30 June 2010 will qualify for the free pre-school year in September 2013 and children born between 2 February 2010 and 30 June 2011 will qualify for the programme in September 2014.

Therefore, children born in July 2010 are below the age range for eligibility for the programme in the school year 2013/14, but will qualify in the school year 2014/15. As it is not in the best interests of children to enter the programme early, there is no provision under the programme to enrol 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.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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529. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the provision of the free pre-school year is being used by various childcare and preschool facilities during early childhood care to increase childcare fees and charge parents a large top up fee or premium on top of the States provision of the free year; her views on whether these additional top up payments and premiums are narrowing the number of institutions that parents can choose to send their children; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30107/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides for a free pre-school year to all eligible children in the year before they commence primary school. Almost every pre-school service (more than 4,300) in the State is participating with over 68,000 children, or 94% of the eligible age cohort, availing of free pre-school this year.

Under the ECCE programme my Department provides a capitation payment to participating services for each eligible child enrolled for the free pre-school year. The standard capitation rate is €2,375 per annum (€62.50 per week) and a higher capitation rate of €2,775 per annum (€73.00 per week) is payable to services with more qualified staff. The higher capitation fee is payable to pre-school service providers where all pre-school leaders delivering the pre-school service hold a bachelor degree in childhood/early education (minimum of Level 7 on the National Framework for Qualifications (NFQ) or equivalent) and have 3 years experience working in the sector, and where all pre-school assistants in the service hold a relevant major award in childcare/early education at level 5 on the NFQ or its equivalent.

It is a fundamental principle of the ECCE programme that participating service providers must operate the pre-school provision free to parents in return for the applicable capitation fee, and parents should be given access to the service where their child only attends the pre-school element.  However, service providers may charge parents for optional additional services e.g. hours which are additional to the free pre-school year requirement.  Optional additional services can also take the form of various one-off or on-going activities or services such as outings, specific teaching resources such as dance or music, and food, but must not include activities which would generally be regarded as a normal part of a pre-school service, e.g. general arts and crafts activities.

In all cases, service providers must ensure that parents are aware that their agreement to additional hours or to any optional charge is not compulsory, and that agreement to additional hours or optional charges is not a condition of initial or continued enrolment.  In additional appropriate programme-based activities must be provided to children not participating in an optional activity where such activities take place during the required period of pre-school provision.

All childcare services participating in the ECCE programme are required to submit a fees policy which sets out their fees calculations and the non-ECCE rate that applies before deductions of the programme funding is made. Parents should also establish the overall cost of the service provided before enrolling their child in the childcare service. Following this, if the parents have concerns about the fees they are being charged, they can contact their local City or County Childcare Committee (CCC), who approve the fee policies in the first instance, and they will be in a position to determine if a particular policy is being correctly applied. Local CCCs also assist my Department in the implementation of the programme and will, if contacted by parents or my Department, raise with providers any concerns that may arise in relation to the implementation of the free pre-school provision.

Pobal, who also assist my Department with the implementation of the ECCE programme, carry out compliance visits throughout the school year to ensure that participating services are adhering to the terms and conditions of the programme.