Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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184. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason the age limit cut-off for the early childhood care and education scheme forces children born after 1 July to wait another year; her plans to amend the eligible age range so that children born in July and August can access same (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7108/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children in the year before commencing primary school. Approximately 68,000 children availed of the ECCE programme in the 2012/13 school year.

Children qualify for the free pre-school provision when they are within the qualifying age range which is 3 years and 3 months to 4 years and 7 months in the September of the relevant year. Children born between 2 February 2010 and 30 June 2011 will qualify for the free pre-school provision in September 2014. Children born between 1st July and 31st August 2011 will qualify in the school year commencing in September 2015. 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. I am satisfied that the qualifying age range for entry to the programme provides the optimum opportunity for children to participate in pre-school education and there are no plans to amend the age range at this time.

When evaluating the most appropriate age range for eligibility for the pre-school programme, consideration must be given to the significant body of evidence provided by international research, which points to the fact that children who start school at a younger age perform at a lower level than children whose entry into the education system is at a later age. The enrolment patterns must also be considered and these show that most parents choose to enrol their children in primary school when they are aged between 4 years 6 months and 5 years 6 months.

Situations will arise where children qualifying for the free pre-school provision are also eligible to commence primary school, and in such situations it is a matter for parents to decide on which option they wish to avail of.