Place Guarantee

There is no legal guarantee to a place in ELC. Parents themselves choose an ELC provider.

Affordability

The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme is a universal, free, two-year pre-school programme available to all children within the eligible age range.

ELC is not a part of the school system and, outside the ECCE programme, attendance is not free of charge. The Irish government does, however, provide subsidies to reduce the upfront costs for parents through the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). There are two types of subsidies available under the Scheme:

• A Universal Subsidy is available to all families with children under 15 years attending ELC or school-age childcare services. This subsidy is not means-tested and, from September 2024, provides €2.14 per hour towards the cost of a registered childcare place for a maximum of 45 hours per week for children under the age of 15 years.
• The Income Assessed Subsidy is available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years. This subsidy is means-tested and is calculated based on family circumstances. Rates vary depending on the level of family income, the child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in the family. 

Access for children with disabilities

In 2016, a cross-Government initiative, the  Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), was successfully launched to ensure that children with disabilities can access and meaningfully participate in the ECCE programme in mainstream pre-school settings. AIM is a child-centred model involving both universal and targeted supports and designed to be responsive to the needs of each individual child in the context of their pre-school setting. It empowers service providers to deliver an inclusive pre-school experience, ensuring that every eligible child can fully participate in the ECCE programme and reap the benefits of quality ELC.

Since AIM was first launched in 2016, more than 27,000 children have received targeted AIM supports in over 4,400 settings nationally and many more children have benefited from its universal supports. AIM has also been recognised nationally and globally - winning awards for excellence in practice and inclusion.

Equal Start

Equal Start is a new funding model to support access and full participation in ELC and SAC for children and their families who experience disadvantage. The model was launched in May 2024.

Equal Start adopts a tiered approach, which incorporates universal supports, child-targeted supports and setting-targeted supports. Implementation will be phased with ongoing engagement with key stakeholders on later phases being a key element of the implementation approach.