Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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257. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of children who, due to their age and date of birth at the time of commencement of a scheme, are unable to take up the free ECCE scheme at the commencement of the academic year, as in the case of a person (details supplied); the protocols she has laid down for reserving a place in a child care provider to participate on the scheme; if incentives are available to parents who are not able to avail of additional months in order to reduce their holding fee; if the funding for months unused could be used to reserve the place in the child care provider prior to commencement of the ECCE year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27762/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The expansion of the ECCE programme 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.

The maximum number of free pre-school weeks to which a child is entitled will depend on their date of birth, and the age at which they start primary school. On average, children will benefit from 61 weeks, up from the previous provision of 38 weeks. Access to the average 61 weeks of ECCE can reduce the cost of childcare by €4,000 per child. In the case of the child specified, they will be entitled to enrol in the programme in January 2017.

The eligibility for ECCE from age three using multiple entry points was a recommendation in Right from the Start, the Report of the Expert Advisory Group on the Early Years Strategy, published in 2013. The objective of this recommendation was to ensure that all children could access free pre-school from as near as possible after their third birthday until they started primary school. This would ensure that children and families had access to care and education in these formative years.

The implementation of this recommendation means that 37,500 children will not be eligible to enrol at the commencement of the pre-school year, i.e. September, but will be eligible to enrol in the January and April entry points in 2017. They will re-enrol the following September.

Pre-school providers are currently entitled to request a booking deposit to hold a free pre-school place for a child. All deposits are fully refundable when the child’s entitlement to free pre-school is confirmed. Eligibility for free pre-school in the January or April intake will not be dependent on the child having been enrolled in the service since the previous September. Pre-school providers may choose to prioritise children already enrolled in the service for the January or April intake (whether those children are benefitting from free provision, or paying if the child is not eligible for free pre-school). Each pre-school provider operates their own admission policies, and once these are within the terms of the ECCE programme, the Department cannot interfere with them. Families who find that their preferred pre-school service has no available places in January or April may have to avail of another service in the area.

Where parents have been refused a place or are unable to find one, they should contact their local County Childcare Committee(CCC) for advice and assistance in locating a suitable place. The CCC can then bring any issues of concern to the attention of my Department.

My Department has conducted extensive research on capacity in the system for the extended ECCE and data to date suggests that sufficient capacity exists in the system to meet demand.