Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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217. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she has plans to extend the early childhood care and education scheme so that children can avail of two years as opposed to one; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41622/13]

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 before commencing primary school. Approximately 68,000 children availed of the provision in 2012. In line with the Programme for Government, I succeeded in maintaining the universality of the free pre-school year, including securing an additional funding requirement of €9.8m in 2012 to address increased demand due to an increase in births since 2009.

There is an increasing body of Irish and International evidence which quantify the benefits of early year’s interventions in terms of improving children’s outcomes and in delivering significant economic and societal return to the state. I this context I believe the introduction of a second year would benefit children’s educational and developmental outcomes as well as proving significantly beneficial to children with special needs. In addition a second pre-school year would represent €2,500 to €3,000 worth of free childcare to parents and likely generate 4,000-5,000 new positions, albeit mostly part-time. The benefits of introducing a second year were further referred to in the OECD reports on Ireland published last week.

However, the introduction of a second pre-school year would require considerable additional funding, with the additional cost broadly in line with the cost of the current one year provision, which is €175 million. This funding is not currently available due to the financial constraints under which the Government is currently operating. However I would hope that this proposal is one which Government could continue to work towards as our public finances recover.

In the meantime, I am progressing a Pre-School Quality Agenda involving a range of actions in eight key areas, aimed at improving quality within early years services and enhancing the regulatory regime. I see this agenda as a key building block for any further extensive of universal childcare provision, including any proposal to introduce a second free pre-school year. Future developments relating to early years care and education have been considered during preparation of the new National Early Years Strategy which will be published later this year.