The Early Childhood Care and Education programme, which everyone calls ECCE, is free preschool. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality describes it as a free, universal two-year preschool programme, and it is not means-tested: there is no income test and nothing to qualify for beyond your child's age.
Which makes the only real question a date question, and a date question with an unusual answer. You do not choose when your child starts. Their year of birth does.
The short version
- What you get
- Two programme years of free preschool, 15 hours a week
- The hours
- 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 38 weeks
- The programme year
- 1 September to 30 June
- Who qualifies
- A child who has turned 2 years and 8 months by 31 August, and who is not older than 5 years and 6 months on or before 30 June of that programme year
- Means test
- None
- Deposit
- Refundable, capped at four weeks of ECCE payment (€276), and returned once registration is approved
The ECCE age limits, and which two years your child gets
The rule has two edges measured on two different dates, which is why it is hard to do in your head. A child qualifies if they have turned 2 years and 8 months by 31 August, and are not older than 5 years and 6 months on or before 30 June of that programme year.
In practice the Department publishes it as a lookup by year of birth, and the pattern is steady: preschool starts in September three years after the year your child was born, runs for that year, starts again the following September, and finishes the June after that.
ECCE age calculator: work out your child's two years
Enter the year your child was born. For children born 2021 to 2025 this returns the Department's own published dates. For any other year it applies the same published age rule, and tells you that is what it did.
ECCE is one date in a much longer sequence. See my full plan →
This applies the published eligibility table to the year you enter. It is not a registration and not a decision. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality funds ECCE and sets the rules, and your provider registers your child through the Early Years Hive. Confirm your own dates on the Department's ECCE page, which carries the full table.
There is no exemption to the lower age limit. If your child misses the 31 August cut-off, even by a day, they wait a full year. Citizens Information states this plainly: exemptions exist only for the upper age limit, and only for children with special educational needs. Nothing can bring the start date forward.
What the free part actually covers
ECCE pays for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, over 38 weeks, which is 15 free hours a week. The programme year runs from 1 September to 30 June, and your provider works to an ECCE calendar of 182 days that they have to display where you can see it.
If your child is there longer than those 3 hours a day, you pay for the extra time. That is where the National Childcare Scheme comes in, because it can subsidise the hours outside ECCE. The two cover different hours rather than the same ones, so they stack. Our guide to what creche actually costs puts the whole bill together.
A small number of sessional services that cannot open 5 days a week run 3 hours 30 minutes a day over 4 days instead. That is an exemption, and it applies only to services the Department has already given permission to, so it is not something a provider can decide for itself.
One clash worth knowing before you enrol: a child cannot be in ECCE and the Early Start Programme at the same time.
What a provider can and cannot charge you
This is the part that is written down and rarely read, and it is the reason to know the rules on a programme that is supposed to be free.
The deposit is capped and it comes back. A provider may charge a refundable deposit to hold a place, but the maximum is four weeks of ECCE payment, which the Department states as €276. It has to appear on the fee table with an accurate description. It must be returned once your child's registration is approved, and the Department's wording on that is "there are no exceptions to this rule".
A part-time or full-time place must come down in price. Where a child attends a part-time or full-time service, the provider is required to reduce the fees you pay by €64.50 a week, or €12.90 a day. That is not a discount they offer, it is a reduction they must apply.
Optional extras are a closed list. Only these may be charged for: food, with the option of bringing your own instead; interactive play and exploration classes; nappies or pull-ups; baking where it is a regular part of the programme; 30 additional minutes at sessional-only services; and one paid preschool trip. The Department says plainly that no optional extras outside that list are allowed. Charging for things a preschool would normally provide, arts and craft materials being the example given, is not permitted.
Three more rules sit around that list, and each one exists because someone tried the opposite. Paying for optional extras cannot be a condition of getting a place. Extras cannot be bundled into a single take-it-or-leave-it option, because each one has to be individually optional with its own charge. And if you want to stop an extra you previously agreed to, you must be allowed to, with a notice period that cannot exceed 4 weeks.
And if you say no to an extra that happens during an ECCE session, your child is not left sitting it out. Children who are not taking part must still get a full content-based session, with the child-to-adult ratio kept for both groups.
Changes to the calendar or to your fees need 20 days' written notice. If any of this is not being followed, the place to raise it is your local City or County Childcare Committee rather than the provider.
What you need before you can register
You do not register with the Department yourself. You fill in a Pre-Registration Form and your provider submits your child's details through the Early Years Hive.
What that form asks for is worth knowing in advance, because one item takes longer than the others to get: your child's full name, their date of birth, their PPS number, and your Eircode. If your child does not have a PPS number yet, that is the thing to start first. Our guide to getting a PPS number for your baby covers how it is issued and what to do if it never arrived.
You will also sign an Applicant Declaration Form and a Parent Statement. The Parent Statement sets out the fees, and it has to go back to your provider within 4 weeks of your child taking up the place.
How a place can be lost, and when it is protected
A child can lose their ECCE place by being absent for 4 weeks in a row. That is the general rule, and it is the one worth knowing before a long trip.
There are two named exceptions. A place can be held for up to 12 weeks for a prolonged illness of the child, a sibling, or a parent or guardian. It can be held for up to 6 weeks after an immediate family bereavement. Neither happens automatically, so tell your provider when you know your child will be away.
Children with special educational needs
The Access and Inclusion Model, known as AIM, exists so that a disability does not keep a child out of ECCE. It has seven levels of support, and it is based on what the child needs when starting preschool: it does not require a diagnosis.
Levels 1 to 3 are universal supports for the setting itself. Levels 4 to 7 are targeted, and you and the provider make a joint application for them.
The upper age limit is the one limit that can be waived, and only for a child with special educational needs. That is a separate request, made to the Department rather than to your provider, and only a parent or guardian can make it. Citizens Information gives the address as EYQueries@equality.gov.ie.
Who decides what
The Department of Children, Disability and Equality funds ECCE, sets the eligibility dates and publishes the rules on fees, deposits and optional extras. Your provider registers your child and sets whatever they charge for hours beyond ECCE. Your local City or County Childcare Committee is the support and complaints route, and the Pobal Parent Centre takes queries by phone on 01 906 8530.
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Official sources
- gov.ie: Early Childhood Care and Education Programme (ECCE) (the two-year description, the eligibility dates, Table 1 by year of birth, the 3 hours over 38 weeks, the 1 September to 30 June programme year, the €276 deposit cap and its mandatory return, the €64.50 weekly and €12.90 daily fee reduction, the closed list of optional extras with the admission, bundling, withdrawal and ratio rules around it, the Pre-Registration Form and Early Years Hive, the Parent Statement, and the 20 days' notice rules)
- Citizens Information: Early Childhood Care and Education programme (ECCE) (that there is no exemption to the lower age limit, how the upper-age-limit exemption is applied for, the 4-week absence rule with its 12-week and 6-week exceptions, the AIM levels and that AIM needs no diagnosis, the 3 hours 30 minutes over 4 days exemption for sessional services that cannot open 5 days, and that a child cannot be in ECCE and Early Start at the same time)
- gov.ie: City and County Childcare Committees
Facts checked against the official pages on 29 August 2026. This is general information, not legal or financial advice, and it does not decide your child's eligibility or what you pay. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality funds ECCE and sets its rules; your provider registers your child and sets any charges beyond the free hours. Dates, caps and rates are set by government and can change; always confirm on the official pages linked above.