James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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At present, the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme provides 38 weeks of free pre-school to 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.

Under this extended programme, 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 programme year.

The cost of this extended provision, which includes the cost of restoring capitation rates to providers to pre-2012 levels from September 2016, is estimated to be an additional €47 million in 2016. As this initiative will begin in September 2016, the total additional annual costs of this extended provision - estimated to be €112 million - will not be realised in full until 2017.

The cost of further extending this free pre-school provision from 38 weeks to 48 weeks (with effect from September 2016 ) in a given programme year would not be realised until 2017. This cost, which is estimated to be approximately €86 million, assumes all 127,000 children expected to benefit from free pre-school in the 2016/2017 programme year receives an additional 10 weeks free pre-school. It also assumes 33 per cent of children are attending higher capitation services (as is currently the case).

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme which provides for free pre-school provision for children before commencing primary school is implemented by my Department.

While certain flexibilities had been built in to the ECCE Programme to facilitate the inclusion of children with a disability, Better Outcomes, Brighter Futuresthe children and young people's policy framework contained a commitment to develop a plan to facilitate the full participation of such children in the ECCE Programme. My Department has lead responsibility for the implementation of this commitment and has concluded an intensive process of deliberation and consultation on the matter in conjunction with my Department of Health and the Department of Education and Skills (and relevant stakeholder) by bringing forward a new model of supports to facilitate the full participation of children with a disability in the ECCE Programme.

As part of Budget 2016, I announced the necessary funding to implement the new model of ECCE supports for children with a disability. The new model will provide supports including enhanced continuing professional development for early years practitioners; grants for equipment, appliances and minor alterations; and access to therapeutic intervention. Funding of €15m has been provided to phase these supports in during 2016. Full year costs for these supports are estimated to be €33m from 2017 onwards.

I am satisfied that when the new model will, when fully operational, enable the full inclusion and meaningful participation of children with disabilities in the free pre-school year.