Pre-school disability services to receive €100m Government investment

Vital pre-school services for children with disabilities are set to receive over €100m of Government investment between now and the end of the decade that will help more than 7,500 families every year.

Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly, Education Minister Jan O’ Sullivan, and Kathleen Lynch, the junior health minister with responsibility for disabilities, announced the measure at an early childhood education conference.

Under the plans agreed by the three Government departments, the HSE, and child services body Tusla, preschool services for children with disabilities will receive €17m in 2016 for staff and upgrade measures.

Over a full year, the financial injection will rise to €32m and is expected to hit €40m by 2020, with staff training, equipment grants, alterations to facilities, and improved access to therapies to be the focus of the extra funds.

The extra moneyis targeted at supporting the 7,500 children with disabilities who are in preschool every year, roughly 1,000 of whom are considered to have severe disabilities.

Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly

It is also linked into the Government’s Budget 2016 plan to extend the State’s free preschool year to a second year for all families.

Announcing the plans alongside his cabinet colleagues Ms O’Sullivan and Ms Lynch at a childcare services event in Dublin, Dr Reilly said it was “critically important all children can participate” in services regardless of their ability and that it was time for people to “stop putting them in boxes” due to their conditions.

Speaking about his own son, who has autism and Dr Reilly was told may never speak but is now studying for a PhD, the children’s minister said nobody should ever “set a limit on our children’s horizons”.

The move has been widely backed by independent groups, with Early Childhood Ireland CEO Teresa Heeney “quietly confident” it will help families.