Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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252. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if assistance will be provided to a person (details supplied) regarding a matter; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14398/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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AIM is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with a disability can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. The key objective of AIM is to support pre-school providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that children with a disability can fully participate in the ECCE programme, thereby reaping the benefits of quality pre-school education.

AIM is a child-centred model, involving seven levels of progressive support, moving from the universal to the targeted, based on the needs of the child and the pre-school setting. AIM was launched in June 2016 and is administered by Pobal on behalf of the DCYA.

Level 7 of AIM provides additional assistance in the pre-school room where this is critical to ensuring a child’s participation in the ECCE Programme. In line with emerging best practice to support the integration and independence of children with a disability, AIM does not fund Special Needs Assistants (SNAs).

Once Pobal awards Level 7 support to a pre-school, the pre-school can decide to either reduce the child to adult ratio in the pre-school room or to buy in additional assistance to the pre-school room through a recruitment process (if the pre-school does not have access to a staff member to fulfil this role as is the case for most smaller pre-schools). In the normal course of events, the recruitment process can take several weeks as the pre-school will have to advertise, review applications, interview candidates, carry out Garda vetting and agree a start date with the successful candidate.

Neither Pobal nor my Department have a role in the recruitment of staff for pre-schools. However, the local CCC funded by my Department would be willing to support recruitment of additional assistance to deliver Level 7 supports and have done so for other settings in the county.