Early Childhood Care and Education
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Eileen Lynch (FG), Agricultural Panel

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith anseo inniu. I want to raise the issue of the ECCE scheme and its impact on children who miss the eligibility criteria by only a matter of days or weeks, particularly kids with additional needs. I would also like to ask whether any changes to these criteria are being considered.
Currently, there are no exemptions to the lower age limit for the ECCE scheme. This means that a child who misses the eligibility threshold by only a few days or weeks must wait an entire additional year before becoming eligible for a State-funded preschool place. Many parents are finding this incredibly unfair and a difference of only a few weeks or days in a child's date of birth will determine whether they receive one or two years of ECCE funding and can significantly affect their educational pathway. As a result, some parents feel pressure to delay their child's entry to primary school in order that they can benefit from the full two years of ECCE prior to primary school. Others choose to send their child to school at the usual age and receive only one year of ECCE support.
This issue is particularly concerning for children with intellectual disabilities and other additional needs. The State recognises that early intervention is critical in supporting the development of children with disabilities. However, there does appear to be a contradiction within the current system. A child may be assessed by speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology services or children's disability network teams, CDNTs, and be deemed likely to benefit from early education participation. They may be developmentally ready for preschool and could greatly benefit from the environment yet there is still no provision or exemption within ECCE for a lower age limit regardless of disability or ability, developmental need or professional recommendation.
As an example, I have been working with a young child from the constituency I live in of Cork North-West. Noah is a young lad who is almost three years of age and has Down's syndrome. He is thriving and is making excellent progress in all areas of his development but because Noah was born in January, he did not qualify for ECCE when he began preschool a few weeks ago. Following professional advice from therapists, his parents still felt it was in his best interests to send him rather than waiting another year because delaying this could have delayed his development. As a result of this, they are now facing a full year of preschool fees without any ECCE support.
In addition, as preparation to ensure that Noah was able to attend preschool this year, he was attending private speech and language therapy, craniosacral therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions each week. This was to ensure he was able to go to preschool this year and then he was ineligible for ECCE. This is all extra cost to his parents. On top of all this private therapy they have been paying for to ensure he was ready for preschool, they now have to pay for preschool because he misses out by three weeks due to the fact that he was born in January.
Children with disabilities often require earlier interventions. This is nothing new. As a Government, we are saying this all the time and not later interventions. A rigid age-based rule may unintentionally delay access to an environment that supports language development, communication, socialisation, independence and school readiness. We know early intervention makes a difference and it is insane that the ECCE scheme is not supporting that. We have situations, particularly with kids with additional needs, where they cannot avail of their extra year because of a rigid, mandatory age requirement.
Going back to Noah, he has now been in preschool for a month. His parents and therapists have already seen remarkable progress. He is a smashing little kid. He is doing really well. He is using new words, and he is engaging with other children. If he had not been able to go to preschool this year, none of that would have been possible.
His parents put additional therapies in place to ensure that he was, but then found out he was ineligible and missed out by a few weeks due to a mandatory age requirement. How many other kids around the country are like Noah? Fortunately, his parents were able to afford to pay for an extra year of the ECCE scheme. A lot of parents are not lucky enough to be in that situation. I appreciate it is not quite within the remit of the Minister, but I thank her for taking this matter. Can any changes be made, given that it is an arbitrary requirement?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23