Early Childhood Care and Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Niamh Smyth (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. It seems absolutely ludicrous that this service was being provided to children aged over six and that Tusla was happy to allow it to continue but that things have suddenly changed. Deputy Lahart is right that transparency for parents is incredibly important, as is having certainty and predictability in respect of the service into the future. In today's world, we cannot leave children in a vacuum at any age, and particularly when they have previously had a service available to them up to the age of six. That cannot be allowed to happen. I appeal to Tusla to provide that transparency, certainty and predictability to parents immediately. It is absolutely crazy that because of this, parents might either have to leave their job or find an alternative, possibly unregulated or unsuitable, education setting for their children.
Tigers Childcare and Nexus Preschool provide a full daycare service, as the Deputies alluded to, which opened in 2024. The service is registered to provide care and education to children between two and six years of age across two distinct services at the same address, both with their own staffing teams. The service was inspected on 4 March 2026. During that inspection, the service was found to be operating outside of its registered status in regard to two children over the age of six who were in attendance on the day of inspection.
Should the providers wish to lawfully provide services for children who do not have a school placement, they can consider seeking approval to become an education provider pursuant to section 14 of the Education (Welfare Act) 2000. The service providers could alternatively reach a private arrangement with the parents of the children to provide services in accordance with the home tuition scheme. However, this could only be operated separately and distinctly from the existing registered early years service. The question is how to accommodate 60 children, as Deputy Moynihan noted. The service providers were requested to revert to the terms of their registration status.
Under the early childhood care and education, ECCE, programme, the provision of an exemption to the upper age limit where a child has special or additional needs is made under review by the Department of children in conjunction with the Department of Education and Youth. It is a requirement that any request for an exemption to the upper age limit under the ECCE programme must include a letter from a medical specialist or therapist specifically recommending why an ECCE service would meet the child's specific needs in a more appropriate way than a primary school.
In deciding on applications for exemptions to the ECCE age limits, the Department of children is guided by a review of the exemption to the upper age limit process carried out by the National Disability Authority, NDA, for the Departments of children and education in 2018. In its published report, the NDA concluded that it is in the best interest of children with additional needs to transfer to primary school with their age cohort. All cases are examined on their own merits. While many children granted an ECCE overage exemption will reach the age of six years while in their final year in ECCE, overage exemptions are not granted to children who have already reached the age of six.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15