Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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367. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of children who availed of ECCE in 2020 and to date in 2021. [2456/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range. The programme is provided for three hours per day, five days per week over 38 weeks per year and runs from September to June each year, aligned with the primary school calendar.

The figures supplied by the scheme administrator Pobal in the table below for the 2002-21 programme year to date show a 3% reduction on the overall programme year 2019-20, but this is not a final figure, as ECCE registrations can continue to be made up to the end of the programme year in June 2021. A slight reduction in demand for ECCE places in 2020-21 programme year was expected due to demographic changes.