Feel hard done by the scheme too; I have an April (2011) child who availed of the scheme in 2014/2015 but was not ready for school in 2015/2016 so we had to pay for a second year of pre-school - even though when Minister Reilly announced the extension of the scheme in Dec 2104 he stated 'from now on Children will be entitled to 2 years pre-school'.
I also have a Jan child who is ready for School at 4.8 but is entitled to another year if we want it. One of my work colleagues has a child 2 weeks younger (end December) but is not entitled to the second (academic) year and her son needs the extra year - slow to talk and been recommended by pre-school teachers to keep him back.
Scheme is not taking account of individual childrens' needs.
Our pre-school too does not take Children in midway through the academic year, they will also not convert a part time (< 5 days) to to more days mid-year as they do not have the space. They expect a top-up of €150 per month that is neither anonymous nor voluntary (there is no pre-school near me that does not expect a top up). The owner says there is no way she can run the scheme without the extra.
On the face of it Jan-March children seem to fare the best, and are entitled to 88 weeks of preschool. Sep-Dec kids are entitled to only 61 weeks. But in reality, given the demand for pre-school spaces, you would have to enrol your Jan-Mar child in preschool from 2.5 years old and pay for 26 weeks of the first year; your child would have 3 years of pre-school before starting school at 5.8/5.7.
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Agree that it works best for summer babies (May - August), or in a creche setting where they normally deduct the subsidy from the monthly fees when the scheme kicks in.