The parents of an estimated 30,000 children eligible for the Government’s ‘free’ pre-school year have not enrolled in the scheme, it has emerged, which may indicate that demand for paid childcare is lower than estimated.

The scheme, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), pays for two and a quarter hours per day of childcare for one year with providers receiving a set fee from the State based on the number of places filled. Childcare facilities earn €48.50 per child per week for a two hour and 15 minute daily service for children aged between three and four. Parents pay for anything over and above this.

The scheme was introduced as a replacement for the Early Childcare Supplement, which was paid directly to parents. This allowed parents to choose whether to spend the money on paid child-care or on helping to enable one parent to remain at home to look after a child. The new scheme means that the Government is prioritising paid child-care over home-care.

Children born between 2 February 2005 and 30 June 2006, are eligible to participate in the Early Child Care and Education scheme, which is set to cost €170m — just a third of the €480m spent last year on the previous scheme.

The EU has set targets on how many children it believes ought to be in childcare. In 2002, at the Barcelona Summit, the European Council said that at least 90 per cent of children between 3 years old and the mandatory school age and at least 33 per cent of children under 3 years of age should be receiving childcare by 2010.

Childcare providers are blaming the Government for not doing enough to publicise the scheme to parents.

However, figures from the Central Statistics Office last year indicate that demand for childcare places may not be as high as usually thought.

Only 31 per cent pre-school children are looked after outside the home for part of each day. These children are mainly looked after in Montessori schools and playgroups. A further 13 per cent are looked after by non-parental relatives.

The Government have responded to criticism from the childcare industry suggesting they have not done enough to promote the scheme.

A Department of Children spokeswoman said Minister Barry Andrews had done extensive media interviews in relation to ECCE and also pointed out that a detailed account of the scheme was available on their website.

“The 33 county childcare committees, responsible for promoting the scheme in their respective areas, have held information nights for parents.”

The Department said they would not have exact figures on how many children were participating in the scheme until the end of the month but stressed they were expecting a significant rise in September. 

They said 90,000 pre-school places had been made available under the scheme.

Mr Andrews was already forced to increase the size of capitation grants after providers warned it could drive them out of business.