Cllr James Carroll has welcomed the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Barry Andrews annoucement that he is extending the eligibility to the new free pre-school year.

“Approximately 4,000 pre-school services have applied to enter the new Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme with a capacity to provide some 93,000 pre-school year places, well in excess of the places required.”

“As a result, it has been decided to allow for greater parental choice and flexibility in the case of children who just miss out on the age eligibility of the scheme by a matter of weeks. The effect will be that children born on or between 2 February 2005 and 30 June 2006 will be eligible to enter the scheme in January 2010.”

Cllr Carroll added “this is wonderful news for the huge number of parents of children born between February 2005 and 30 June 2006 who were originally excluded from the scheme”.

“A large number of parents had been in contact with me who just missed out on the scheme’s original cut-off point by a number of days or weeks and this is great news for them and especially, their children,” he added.

“In addition, the Minister is introducing a higher rate of capitation for sessional playschool services with highly qualified staff.  Minister Andrews also announced that he had received confirmation from the Valuation Office that sessional services participating in the scheme, which defray their costs wholly or mainly from State funding, will be exempt from commercial rates under the Valuation Act. While this will not impact on full-day crèches, whose main income will remain parental fees, it will reduce the running costs of many participating pre-school services.  This is a concrete example of the Government being flexible and fair at these most tough of economic times,” the young cllr concluded.

ENDS