Senator Erin McGreehan has welcomed plans announced by Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman for an additional €14 million in supports for children with a disability under the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM).

AIM was introduced to ensure that children with a disability could access and meaningfully participate in the State-funded Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme in mainstream settings – through a suite of universal and targeted supports.

Senator McGreehan said: “This additional funding is welcome as it will ensure an increasing number of ECCE-enrolled children can be supported under AIM.

“The funding will support an extension of AIM support from September 2024, meaning that children with a disability enrolled in the ECCE programme will now be fully supported to access and participate in early learning and childcare settings beyond the time they spend in that programme – both in term and out of term.

“Fianna Fail in government strongly believes that every child should have access to high quality early learning and care, so this additional funding is hugely welcome.”