245. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the full- and first-year cost to expand the access and inclusion model to children in the 0-3 age group currently enrolled in an early years service. [30018/24]

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) was introduced in 2016 to ensure that children with additional needs or a disability could access and meaningfully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme.

An independent evaluation of AIM was published in January 2024 and has informed the phased extension of AIM, commencing from this September with the extension of targeted AIM supports to ECCE-age children beyond time they spend in the ECCE programme – both in term and out. This will allow children to access early learning and childcare for up to an additional 3 hours in term and 6 hours out of term.

It is the ambition that, over time, all children with additional needs registered in early learning and childcare services will benefit from supports under AIM. To this end, officials are currently giving careful consideration to how younger children not yet eligible for the ECCE programme, can be supported through AIM.

As with the current AIM-eligible cohort, supports would be open to all children based on an individual needs basis. The specific supports required based on the differing needs of children in 0-3 cohort will vary from those currently required by ECCE aged children. As the AIM policy and associated supports for 0-3 year olds has not yet been designed it is not feasible to meaningfully predict costs without further analysis and consideration of evidenced need. The process of analysis is currently ongoing.