The provision for a free preschool year was made and announced in the April 2009 budget and was certainly a landmark development as far as early education and childcare were concerned. The funds for the scheme were arranged by the OMCYA. Two other practice frameworks namely Aistear and Siolta were funded by the Department of Education and Science and were intended to provide support to the creation of quality provision for all the participating services in the country.

The important areas that are covered by the Early Years Education Policy Unit include:

·         Creating a Workforce Development Plan for the ECCE or the Early Childhood Care and Education sector to facilitate the growth of well qualified workforce for the ECCE

·         Making provision for representation and policy advice on both international and national ECCE policy development enterprise

·         Implementing the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education or Siolta

·         Focusing on areas that prove to be disadvantageous for the children

The Department of Education and Science in Ireland established the Early Years Education Policy Unit that was intended to work on and improve the quality of the educational resources as part of the ECCE settings. The unit shares its location with that of the OMCYA or the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. This is in view of the fact that the developments in the sector are in tandem with the overall strategic policy.

There are a number of preschools in various Irish cities that comply with the educational norms of the country. As a resident of Kildare, you can enrol your child in one of the established preschools in the city. These units follow the best practices of early education and child care in Kildare. You can acquire more information about them by browsing the online resources.