Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Crowe has raised several issues. Irrespective of whether the child moved from one school to another the tuition grant would have been stopped for the first school because we hold the view that school-based education provision is the most appropriate intervention for all children, including those with special educational needs. Where a child is attending full-time education, there is no need for the home tuition grant to be awarded. In the case in question, it is not because the child moved but because the child is in full-time education.

The Deputy said the parents have a particular concern about the number of hours of one-to-one tuition the child is receiving in the school. I find this curious because the particular facility the child is attending has funding for 33 adults at €1.18 million per year. Our records, however, show only 27 children are attending. With 33 adults and 27 children, there is no reason the child would not be able to get the one-to-one attention normally given in these centres. There is a whole applied behaviour analysis method in providing one-to-one tuition. I suggest the parents talk to the centre to see, with that number of staffing and children, why the child is not getting the one-to-one attention they feel the child deserves.

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