Written answers

Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Early Childhood Care Education

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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432. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs under Early Childhood Care and Education changes announced in Budget 2016, the number of children his Department estimates could lose out on some weeks of preschool out of the current 38 weeks provision, if at present they were expected to enrol preschool age at 3.2 and begin school age at 4 to 4.5, due to the requirement that children have to enrol in either January, September or April. [36540/15]

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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433. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs for an outline of all assumptions underlying his Department's analysis, including assumptions used on the number of children that start school aged four to five, compared to ages five to six; the way the estimate for the average 23 weeks of additional preschool that his Department has stated has been arrived at. [36541/15]

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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434. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the way his Department has calculated that the expansion of eligibility for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme free preschool year to ages 3 to 5.5, in addition to the reinstatement of pre-2012 capitation rates, will cost in the region of €47 million, while the current programme costs approximately €175 million, and in replies to Parliamentary Questions (details supplied) issued by his Department he indicated that an expansion of the ECCE Scheme to a second year would cost in the region of €175 million; if the information provided in the replies to these Parliamentary Questions was an accurate response to the question; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36542/15]

Photo of Robert TroyRobert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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435. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs under the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme changes announced in Budget 2016, the number of children that his Department estimates will benefit from additional weeks of preschool and the number of additional weeks they are expected to gain on average if they were born in the months 1 January to 31 March, 1 April to 31 August, and 1 September to 31 December; and if they begin school aged four to five years compared to if they begin school aged 5.1 to six years. [36543/15]

Photo of James ReillyJames Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 432 to 435, inclusive, together.

At present, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme covers children who have reached the age of 3 years and 2 months by 1st September of the relevant year. From September 2016, I am expanding the ECCE programme to allow children to access free pre-school from the time they are 3 years of age until they start primary school. There will be three intakes of eligible children during the pre-school year: children who reach the age of 3 between April and August can access the programme from September; children who reach the age of 3 between September and December can access the programme from January; and children who reach the age of 3 between January and March can access the programme from April.

The number of weeks of free pre-school a child will benefit from will depend on their birth date and on the age at which they start primary school. This number ranges from 38 weeks (for children born between April and August who start school at age 4) to 88 weeks (for children born between January and March who start school at age 5). This equates to an estimated 23 additional weeks on average. The estimated average was derived by taking the average number of weeks a child will benefit from (i.e. 61 weeks) and deducting current entitlement (i.e. 38 weeks).

Average number of pre-school weeks by month of birth and of enrolment in pre-school

Average no. of ECCE weeksAverage no. of ECCE weeks
Birth MonthEnrolment MonthStart school age 4Start school age 5
Jan - MarApril5088
Apr - AugSeptember3876
Sep - DecJanuary6161

My Department estimates that the number of children benefiting from the ECCE programme will increase from 67,000 to over 127,000 in a given year. This figure is based on population estimates (drawn from the Central Statistics), estimates on school starting age (drawn from the Department of Education and Skills), and the current rate of participation (i.e. 95% uptake).

The cost of this extended provision is estimated to be an additional €47 million in 2016. This includes the cost of restoring capitation rates to providers to pre-2012 levels from September 2016.

As this initiative will begin in September 2016, the total additional costs of this extended provision - estimated to be €112 million - will not be realised in full until 2017. This extended provision is estimated to result in 23 additional weeks of free pre-school for children on average. A full second year of pre-school (i.e. 38 additional weeks for all children) is estimated to cost in the region of €175 million.

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