The children’s minister has defended plans to extend free preschooling by a year, despite the fact that they would not be introduced until after the election.
As part of last week’s budget, James Reilly announced plans to provide free preschool care for children from the age of three to five-and-a-half, or when they start primary school.
In order to stagger the entry of children into crèches, he proposed three different intakes for the scheme, in January, April and September.
Dr Reilly said the scheme would not start until next September, to allow time to recruit more staff.
“There are concerns around capacity and other issues and it was felt it would need a degree of time to allow the sector to prepare for the expansion,” Dr Reilly told RTE’s This Week programme yesterday. “I had a good meeting with the sector last week and we are going to work to overcome any of the challenges.”
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Dr Reilly added that there were currently 10,000 unoccupied places within the sector, which would allow “some leeway”.
About 67,000 children currently receive free preschooling. By 2017 an estimated 127,000 children will be eligible.
Dr Reilly denied that there was inadequate funding for the extra places.
“We spent €260 million on this area in the last year; next year we are spending €345 million. That is a huge increase in relative terms,” he said.
Lucinda Creighton, the leader of Renua, said it was “frustrating” for parents that their children would not have access to the extended scheme until next year.
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“I think the proposal in itself is abysmally inadequate,” she said. “This scheme is not a solution for working parents: it offers a few hours during the day and it only runs for 38 weeks of the year, not the summer months.
“The very least they could have done was to ensure the scheme was ready to go, for those who need it, from the beginning of this year,” she added.