Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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451. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding that her Department has allocated to a programme (details supplied) in 2017. [50970/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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452. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding that her Department has allocated to a programme (details supplied) for 2018. [50971/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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453. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding that her Department allocated to a programme (details supplied) in the years 2015 and 2016. [50972/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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454. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding that her Department has allocated to a programme (details supplied) in 2017. [50973/17]

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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455. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding that her Department has allocated to a programme (details supplied) since 2014. [50974/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 451 to 455, inclusive, together.

The National Síolta Aistear initiative was established in late 2016. Its purpose is to provide central support and coordination of Síolta (The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education) and Aistear (The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework) implementation across the Early Years sector. The Síolta Quality Assurance Programme (QAP) and professional development in Aistear are resourced through the National Síolta Aistear initiative. This initiative is funded by DCYA and is a joint initiative between DCYA, DES and NCCA.

The National Síolta Aistear Initiative is recorded on the same expenditure line within my Department’s allocation and its first allocation was in the 2017 budget.

The allocation for this initiative in 2017 was €500k and I’m pleased to confirm that this level of allocation will be repeated in 2018.