I returned to Donegal County Childcare Committee website and the organization called StartStrong this week. Their latest issue of their newsletter is out and in it I went to the link called “End Child Poverty”. It is hard to think of Ireland (land of merriment, all things green and Guinness) and at the same time think of children in poverty. Because of the recession they are suffering financial budgets cuts across the board right now including education. The End Child Poverty Coalition has put forth some recommendations to the government much the same way we do. They are concerned about accessibility and affordability of education programs. They feel there will not be enough places for children of poverty in the pre-schools if funds are not kept the same or even increased. Ireland has children of immigrant families and a sub culture of people known as the Travelers. These children are missing out on early education because of all three issues of availability, affordability and accessibility.
In the same newsletter there is a news release from the Dept. of Children and Youth Affairs supporting a strategy that champions early childhood education and ways to make it available to more children.
This website and the e-newsletter have made me more aware that excellence and equity in early education is not just a USA concern. Ireland is looking to us, New Zealand, France and England as they build a new education strategy. They have found that children who experience high quality preschool are higher achievers in education and employment and these benefits are having equity enhancing effects.(Dept. of Children and Youth Affairs, 2012).
Ireland operates under a more socialized government system. I learned more about their strategy they want to put in place. Besides accessibility, they are concerned about the affordability issue. They are calling for the government to set up a national 10-year plan for early childhood where the children of the year 2020 would have all the services and education programs in place that they would need.
To have our government actually get a plan in place that we could aspire to in early education might be a trend we should follow.

Links from Start Strong website:

Department of Children and Youth Affairs March 6, 2012
Government Approves Development of Ireland's First National Early Years Strategy for Children from birth to 6 years
http://www.dcya.gov.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=1809%20

End Child Poverty Coalition
Action Required by Government
http://endchildpoverty.ie/solutions/index.html