David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1109. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will ensure that a Montessori operating an inclusive model of education and care (details supplied) is not forced to reduce services due to funding constraints; and that this Montessori is not forced to abandon an inclusive model of care in favour of mainstream or special status which would exclude some of the children currently in care of this institution. [49025/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) is a model of supports designed to ensure that children with additional needs can access the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Programme. The goal of AIM is to empower Early Learning and Care (ELC) providers to deliver an inclusive preschool experience, ensuring that every eligible child can meaningfully participate in the ECCE Programme and reap the benefits of high-quality early learning and care.

AIM Level 7 support provides additional funding to ELC providers who have a child/children requiring extra support. Providers can use this funding either to reduce the adult-to-child ratio in the pre-school room or to fund an extra staff member as a shared resource with other children in the ECCE setting. Reduced ratio is only for standard AIM applications, as for AIM Plus and AIM non-term the ratios are already reduced as it is after ECCE hours. This Department have no plans to amend the AIM rules around ratios.

Pobal, the administrator of the AIM scheme on behalf of the Department, have confirmed that non-term applications from the service provider referred to were submitted on 16 June 2025 and 24 June 2025. All applications were appraised by the 3 July and in line with 2024/2025 AIM programme rules, the funding start date for 2024/2025 was the Monday following approval which in this case was 7 July 2025.

Communications regarding the opening of AIM Plus and AIM Non-Term were issued via the Early Years Hive in July, August, and September 2024. Additionally, on 29 April 2025, a communication was sent to services advising them to begin submitting their summer non-term applications to ensure funding. This was followed by two communications in June and another in July, reminding services of the upcoming closure for AIM Non-Term applications.