No shortage of places for free year of pre-school

THERE ARE more places available than there are children who have applied for the free year of pre-schooling, which starts in January, it has been confirmed.

About 30,000 children born between February 2nd, 2005, and June 30th, 2006, are eligible for the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scheme, which replaces the early childhood supplement which was scrapped in the budget in April this year.

It is the biggest pre-school childcare initiative ever undertaken in the State and will cost €170 million a year to run.

When it was first proposed in April, there were fears that there would not be enough places for children, but the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs says that every child who wants a place will get one.

A spokeswoman said: “When it was announced, the Minister stated on RTÉ that some shortages could arise in the initial period of the scheme in localised areas.

“It would seem that this will be unlikely given the very high level of applications, which mean that the number of places being offered is likely to significantly exceed requirements.”

National Children’s Nurseries Association (NCNA) director of services, Teresa Heeney, said the State’s creches, nurseries and playgroups had offered the equivalent of 90,000 places.

But she said the €64.50 a week the Government was offering for each place was causing “huge problems” for providers, whose cost base was significantly higher than that.

The Government will not allow a top-up if children who are already receiving a year’s free playschool are paying more than €64.50.

The number of children who will be taking part in the scheme will not be known until services providing it report back between January 11th and January 22nd. A total of 4,700 different pre-school creches, playgroups, parent and toddler groups have applied successfully to join the scheme.

The next tranche of children due to benefit from the scheme – those born between February 2nd, 2006 and June 30th, 2007 – will start pre-school in September of next year. There are likely to be about 70,000 places taken up in the full year.

The scheme entitles children to up to 15 hours per week over 38 weeks or 11.5 hours per week over 50 weeks.

The Irish Preschool Play Association (IPPA), which represents 50,000 families nationwide, said some parents were confused about who was eligible for the scheme, but preparation for it had been adequate given the scale of the task involved.

Phase one will run from January to September 2012. IPPA chief executive Irene Gunning said almost 80 per cent of its members had received the contract to operate the ECCE.

“Overall, they have worked flat out. A lot of our members have individual stories of pure frustration in trying to deal with it, but overall the department has listened carefully to us and has been working around the clock” she said.

“We are urging parents to get down to their local playgroup or creche now to find if they have registered with the scheme, if their child is eligible and if there is a place for their child. If it is not sorted, they may have to wait until the following term.”