Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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898. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the cost of increasing the number of weeks covered under the early childhood care and education, ECCE, scheme from 38 to 40 and 42, respectively, from September 2017 onwards. [24226/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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It is estimated that the cost of extending the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme to the number of weeks specified by the Deputy, assuming 60% of children will attend higher rate services and 40% of children will attend standard rate services, would be as follows:

The expansion of the ECCE programme into a second year, from September 2016, will see the number of children benefitting from the Programme rise from around 67,000 to around 127,000 in a given programme year. For the 2016/17 programme year, it is estimated that 89,500 children will be eligible to enrol in the Programme from September 2016, an additional 22,000 from January 2017 and a further 15,500 from April 2017. From September 2016, the standard weekly capitation rate for each eligible child will be €64.50, and the higher weekly capitation rate will be €75.