CHIEF Minister Frank Walker wants to raid the overseas aid budget to cover the cost of free nursery education for the Island’s three- and four-year-olds.

In a late amendment to Tuesday’s Business Plan debate – when the States will decide next year’s departmental spending – Senator Walker proposes reducing the overseas aid budget by £3.5m over three years to fund changes to nursery provision. He has lodged an amendment to Education Minister Mike Vibert’s own amendment which seeks more money for his department for nursery care. The move has been attacked as ‘robbery’ by the author of a scrutiny report that recommended increasing the overseas aid funding earlier this year. Senator Jim Perchard says that it is ‘deeply cynical’ to target overseas aid when annual public spending has hit £559m per year. Education’s plan to offer 20 hours of free nursery care for every child aged three or four during termtime would end the lottery that sees some parents get free nursery places and others have to pay.