Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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234. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if three children, triplets, who turned three on 15 October 2015, are entitled to free preschool which commenced in January 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8063/16]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2016 I announced the extension of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme which means that children will be eligible to start free pre-school when they reach the age of 3, and can continue in free pre-school until they start primary school (once the child is not older than 5½ years at the end of the pre-school year i.e. end June).

In order to provide the early years sector with the time to build capacity to meet this increased demand, a decision was taken to introduce this new measure from September 2016. It was not possible to introduce the extended programme from January 2016. It is appreciated that this does mean that a small cohort of children, including those mentioned by the Deputy, while continuing to avail of the 38 week entitlement to free pre-school currently provided under the ECCE programme, will not benefit from additional free pre-school provided under this new budgetary measure. However, should an earlier start date have been chosen, the likelihood is that there would not have been sufficient capacity in the sector to accommodate all children.

You will appreciate that this extended provision, when introduced, will ensure that, from the age of three, all children in Ireland will be able to access free education, either in pre-school or in primary school. This is a significant step forward for children and families.