Written answers

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Early Child Care Education

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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855. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if a child (details supplied) will be accepted for the early childhood care and education scheme. [29007/14]

Photo of Charles FlanaganCharles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a free and universal programme which provides a free pre-school year to all eligible children.

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 2010 and 30 June 2011 will qualify for the free pre-school year in September 2014 and children born between 2 February 2011 and 30 June 2012 will qualify for the programme in September 2015.

The child in question was born in August 2011 and is below the age range for eligibility for the programme in the school year 2014/15. The child is not being denied access to the programme and will qualify for the free pre-school provision in the school year 2015/16. 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.

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