Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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107. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the amount of the €47 million for the expansion of the early childhood care and education programme announced in Budget 2016 will be spent on higher Capitation rates; the amount on higher participation numbers; and the full-year costs of both initiatives. [36778/15]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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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.

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.

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 and assumes 33 per cent of children are attending higher capitation services (as is currently the case).

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. Again, this includes the cost of restoring capitation rates to providers to pre-2012 levels from September 2016 and assumes 33 per cent of children are attending higher capitation services (as is currently the case).