Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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138. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth his plans to increase specialist supports for children with additional needs attending afterschool services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47694/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Specialist supports provided by my Department for children with additional needs in early learning and childcare services operate through the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM). AIM is a programme of supports designed to ensure that children with disabilities can access and meaningfully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) universal pre-school programme.

AIM provides both universal and targeted supports. In its current form, the targeted supports within AIM are exclusively tied to the ECCE pre-school programme, and so targeted supports are not available in afterschool settings. Some of the universal supports within AIM, however, such as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training, may benefit all children attending services that take part, which include some services that offer both early learning and care and school-age childcare.

First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, commits to consider enhancements to, or extension of AIM, following completion of the evaluation of AIM. Such an extension might involve younger children, longer hours of availability of targeted supports, children with additional needs other than a disability, or children attending school-age childcare services. Any decisions on extension or reform of AIM will be informed by the findings of the end-of-year-three evaluation of AIM, which is currently underway, with the final report due to be published in February 2022.