Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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1092. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to discontinue the Health Service Executive's pre-school assistance subsidy to support children with Down syndrome and other disabilities from 2015. [34418/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme, which is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, provides for a free pre-school year to eligible children in the year before they commence primary school. The objective of this scheme is to support early learning in a formal setting in advance of starting school. I understand that certain flexibilities are built into the scheme in an effort to accommodate children with special needs, such as an overage exemption, or waiver, for children with special needs who do not meet the age criteria and the option to avail of the free pre-school year over two years.

The Health Service Executive has no statutory obligation to provide assistant supports for children with special needs wishing to avail of the free pre-school year. As such, there is no national HSE policy in relation to the payment of a 'pre-school assistance subsidy' as referred to by the Deputy. However, the HSE does work at local level and in partnership with the relevant disability service providers to address individual needs as they arise. In certain locations, where resources are available, this may involve the HSE funding the provision of supports to enable a child with a disability to attend a mainstream pre-school. The Deputy is welcome to provide more details in relation to this query, which I would then provide to the HSE for investigation and direct reply.