Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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80. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children in each of the past three years who have participated in the free preschool year of the early childhood care and education scheme; the number and locations by county of the child care providers participating; if a second preschool year will be added; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27974/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, 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. The programme is expected to cost about €175m in the current year, including the cost of administration.

Just over 65,000 children participated in the programme in the 2011/2012 school year. Approximately 68,000 children availed of the provision in the 2012/2013 academic year, and similar numbers are expected to avail of the provision during this academic year. A total of 4,220 childcare providers are participating in the programme in this academic year and a table listing those service providers is being forwarded directly to the Deputy.

Despite the challenging budgetary situation, the pre-school year has been maintained 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 quantifying 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. The Early Years 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 professionalisation of the Early Years workforce.