Since 1998 all four-year-olds in the province have been entitled to ayear of pre-school education.
But early years organisation Nippa has warned that laws stopping thefunding for places being redistributed around Northern Ireland areresulting in children being turned away.
Siobhan Fitzpatrick, chief executive of Nippa, said that nurseries thatwere struggling to fill places in areas with few four-year-olds werefilling spaces with two-year-olds instead. This means cash that couldpay for places for four-year-olds in other areas was being used up.Fitzpatrick said the law needed to be changed so that two-year-olds werenot eligible for the places.
"Parents shouldn't be turned away and told they can't have provision fortheir children unless they're willing to pay for it," she added.
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