The National Childcare Scheme opened in October 2019, replacing all previous childcare programmes with a single, streamlined and user - friendly Scheme to help parents meet the cost of childcare.

more information

The Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) allows children with a disability to access additional supports in their free preschool years. This does not require a formal diagnosis, rather each child will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

more information

The ECCE
free pre-school years
 

This is unaffected by the introduction of the National Childcare Scheme.

Children are eligible for two free preschool years in Ireland, from the age of 3-5 approx (see calculator below to workout your child's eligiblity), and can continue in free pre-school until they start primary school (once the child is not older than 5 years and 6 months at the end of the relevant pre-school year i.e. end June).

They can attend for 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, 38 weeks of the year.

Childcare services receive a payment for each child attending full-time.

There is an option for a child to attend part-time with the agreement of the parents and the service (payment will be pro-rata).