Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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143. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will report on consideration being given to extending the free year of preschool education; if this will involve extending the daily hours provided; the number of weeks covered in the year; or introducing a further year; and when such enhancements may be introduced. [7758/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education programme provides a free preschool year to all eligible children, in the age range 3 years and 2 months to 4 years and 7 months, before commencing primary school.

The objective of the free preschool year is to improve children's readiness for entry to primary school. It is considered that the 38 week model of delivery in one school year is the optimal model in terms of ensuring a high-quality early years experience for preschool children. The Síolta and Aistear frameworks, which are central to quality preschool provision, were developed to support this objective. The current model of delivery also helps to ensure that children and parents become accustomed to the weekly discipline of school attendance with the number of days and hours on which the programme is delivered being approximate to the primary school requirement of 5 days over 38.6 weeks. There are no plans to increase the current provision within the preschool year or to extend the age range for eligibility.

There is an increasing body of Irish and international evidence quantifying the benefits of early years interventions in terms of improving outcomes for children and in delivering significant and societal return to the State. In this context, I believe that the introduction of a second free preschool year would benefit children’s educational and developmental outcomes.

The introduction of a second preschool year would require considerable additional funding which is not currently available. In addition, all of the available evidence indicates that the quality of the preschool provision is key to good outcomes for children. The actions contained in the Early Years Quality Agenda, which involves a range of measures in key areas aimed at improving quality within early years services and enhancing the regulatory regime, are currently being implemented.

Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People 2014-2020, recognises the value of early childhood care and education in supporting children’s early cognitive, social and emotional development, and the Government is committed to the introduction of a second free preschool year within the lifetime of the Framework once the required quality standards are achieved, and subject to the availability of resources.