This country review of early childhood education and care in Ireland is part of the OECD’s Quality beyond Regulations project undertaken by the Early Childhood and Schools division within the Directorate for Education and Skills. The review involved two policy missions, carried out virtually in light of the Covid-19 pandemic (see Annex A for details). The OECD is grateful to all stakeholders who participated in these missions and delivered extremely valuable information despite the remote nature of meetings. The insights and opinions of stakeholders provided the OECD team with important contextual information that contributed to the understanding of Ireland’s Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector and helped with the formulation of policy recommendations.
The OECD would like to warmly thank Toby Wolfe and Edel Kirwan, both from Ireland’s Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) who acted as national coordinators for the project. To guide the work of the review, an Oversight Group was established with the following members: Anne-Marie Brooks (DCEDIY), Philip Crosby (DE), Jacqueline Fallon (NCCA), Yvonne Keating (DE Inspectorate), Eibhlin O’Leary (Tusla Early Years Inspectorate), Margaret Rogers (Better Start), Joanne Tobin (DE) and Toby Wolfe (DCEDIY). The OECD would like to thank members of the Oversight Group for sharing their expertise and reviewing draft material at several points during the project, as well as for their continued support throughout the project.
A key part of the preparation of this country review was the development of a Country Background Report on Ireland’s ECEC system and policies, following guidelines provided by the OECD, authored by Cavin Wilson and Gillian Paull, and published by Frontier Economics. The country background report is an important output from the review process in its own right as well as the main starting point and resource for the review. The OECD is grateful to the authors of the Country Background Report.
This report was prepared by the OECD’s Early Childhood Education and Care team Directorate for Education and Skills. The review team included Stéphanie Jamet, Victoria Liberatore and Thomas Radinger from the OECD Secretariat and William (Bill) Maxwell (independent consultant, previously Chief Executive of Education Scotland). The review was led and co-ordinated by Stéphanie Jamet and Thomas Radinger. The authors of this report are: Chapter 1, Victoria Liberatore; Chapter 2, Stéphanie Jamet and Thomas Radinger; Chapter 3, William (Bill) Maxwell. Andrea Konstantinidi provided co-ordination and administrative support throughout the project and was in charge of the editing and layout of the report. Alison Burke, Cassandra Davis and Taline Shahinian also provided support for production and communication processes.
The review on Ireland benefitted from support from the European Commission (EC). The EC took part in virtual missions and offered comments on drafts of this report. The OECD would like to thank Livia Ruszthy for the co-ordination of the involvement of the EC, and Géraldine Libreau and Sylwia Sitka for their contributions to the project.