Early Childhood Education Commons^™

“We Can’T Provide A Quality Service On Shoestrings”: Irish Practitioners Perspectives On The Ecce Scheme (2010), Ayooluwa Oke, Judith E. Butler, Cian O'Neill

The Qualitative Report

There is a general disquiet in the Irish Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector about the sustainability of initiatives and best practice guidelines in the context of low status, pay and investment. The ECCE Scheme (2010; DCYA, 2018b) provided access to three hours of “free” ECCE for children aged 2.8 years who could continue to avail of the ECCE until they reached 5.6 years old (DCYA, 2018b). Ireland, under the Barcelona Summit (2002), was obliged to provide increased access to ECCE to (European Commission, 2008) to increase women’s participation in the labour market (European Commission, 2008). However, the introduction …