Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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640. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied), which was included in the original early start pilot, only has one year of early start; and IF it is possible to expand this to two years. [11408/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My department is committed to enabling children and young people achieve their full potential. As such, the Early Start programme was established in 1994 as a one-year intervention programme to meet the needs of children aged between 3 years and 5 years who are at risk of educational disadvantage and of not reaching their full potential within the school system. It involves an educational programme to enhance overall development, help prevent school failure and offset the effects of social disadvantage. Early Start units are attached to primary schools and are staffed by teachers and child care workers.

Since the inception of Early Start, the early childhood education and care landscape in Ireland has changed significantly, with the introduction of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme in 2010, and the extension of the ECCE scheme to a two-year programme in 2018. There are no plans to extend Early Start to a two-year programme.

The ECCE scheme is under the remit of my colleague the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, and officials of my Department and its agencies co-operate closely with that Department, particularly in relation to Síolta and Aistear, the national quality and curriculum frameworks for early years care and education.

While the ECCE scheme is the national universal two-year pre-school programme available to all children, the Early Start programme continues to run in 39 primary schools and has capacity for 1,620 children each year.