Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

These people had full-time tuition in school as well as the home tuition grants, so it is a cut, in that sense, for the individual families. Many parents of autistic children are demanding an ABA system of education. If the Department had to pay for such a system, as opposed to the mainstream system, where in the case of one of these children, the class size is 29, it would be much more expensive than providing a home tuition grant. Providing extra support for these very needy children who place very heavy demands on their parents in the evenings, as well as when they are at school, is money well spent. The amount of money in question is very small and I urge the Minster to re-examine this issue.

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