Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy on behalf of the Department of Education for the question and for giving me the opportunity to provide the House with an outline of the home tuition scheme, which is an important resource for a small number of children who require this particular support. The home tuition scheme is one of the many ways in which the Department of Education and the National Council for Special Education continue to support children with special educational needs. I stress that enabling students with additional needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is an ongoing priority for the Government. It is a priority to ensure that all children have an appropriate school placement and that the necessary supports are provided to our schools to cater for the needs of children with special educational needs. In 2023, the Department of Education will spend more than €2.6 billion, or over 27%, of the Department's budget on providing additional teaching and care supports for children with special needs. This will allow the Department to further increase the number of teaching and special needs assistant posts in our schools. There will be an additional 686 teachers and a further 1,094 special needs assistants in our schools by the end of this calendar year. Further progress has been made in budget 2024, in which an additional €113 million has been provided, which will be dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs, allowing for a further 744 teachers and 1,216 special needs assistants to deliver up to 2,700 places for children with special educational needs. This means there will be more than 41,500 qualified and committed people in our schools focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.

The Department's home tuition grant scheme provides funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school. By its nature, it is intended to be a short-term intervention. The scheme provides for early educational intervention for children with autism who meet the scheme's eligibility criteria, students with special educational needs seeking an educational placement in a recognised school, and students enrolled in schools who have a significant medical condition or school phobia and-or associated depression or anxiety, which has caused and is likely to continue to cause major disruption to their attendance in school.

In exceptional cases, the Department will consider home tuition applications on behalf of students with a diagnosis of school phobia or associated anxiety which has caused and is likely to continue to cause major disruption to their attendance at school. The exception will only apply when a continued absence from school is required to facilitate appropriate medical or therapeutic intervention with a view to the reintegration of the student in his or her school. The intention of the scheme is that home tuition is provided for short periods; it is not a long-term measure. There is an increased number of special schools and special classes available in recent years; it is intended this will mean fewer children requiring access to home tuition in future.

Given the nature of the scheme, home tutors are engaged by parents and guardians of the child who is to receive tuition and the tutor has no contractual relationship with the Department of Education. Tutors are paid through the Department's fortnightly payroll system and, in accordance with instructions from the Revenue Commissioners, payments under the scheme are subject to statutory deductions at source. In order to facilitate parents, the Department acts solely as payroll agent. The Department of Social Protection has also determined that home tutors are engaged under a contract for service and are therefore self-employed and subject to PRSI class S.

The matter raised by the Deputy is an important one and the Department of Education continues to keep all of these issues under review in light of any legal decisions or changes in legislation.

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