Written answers

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Preschool Services

Photo of Terence FlanaganTerence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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383. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to introduce a second free pre-school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10856/14]

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education 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 the 2012/2013 academic year, and similar numbers are expected to avail of it during the current academic year.

Despite the challenging budgetary situation, I have succeeded in maintaining the pre-school year as a universal and free programme, ensuring that a significant number of children can avail of quality pre-school services who would not otherwise be in a position to do so.

There is an increasing body of Irish and International evidence which quantify the benefits of early years interventions in terms of improving children’s outcomes and in delivering significant economic and societal return to the state. In this context I believe the introduction of a second year would benefit children’s educational and developmental outcomes. A second free pre-school year would represent €2,500 to €3,000 worth of free childcare to parents and would be likely to generate 4,000-5,000 new jobs, albeit mostly part-time.

However, the introduction of a second pre-school year would require considerable additional funding, broadly in line with the cost of the current one-year provision, which is €175 million per annum. This additional funding is not presently available due to the financial constraints under which the Government is operating. In addition, all of the available evidence indicates that the quality of the pre-school provision is key to good outcomes for children. My Pre-School Quality Agenda, which involves a range of actions in key areas aimed at improving quality within early years services and enhancing the regulatory regime, is a key building block for any further extension of universal childcare provision.

Future developments relating to early years care and education are being considered as part of the preparation of the new National Early Years Strategy. The report of the Expert Advisory Group which I appointed to advise on recommendations for inclusion in the Strategy, ‘Right from the Start’, sets out a wide range of recommendations for consideration and will contribute substantially to the final draft of the Early Years Strategy. One of the recommendations in the Report for consideration in the preparation of the Strategy is to extend the free pre-school provision, but only after achieving higher quality standards, more investment in training and mentoring, and professionalization of the Early Years workforce.

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