Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 3: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason a person (details supplied) in Dublin 22 on being admitted to a dedicated autism unit (details supplied) in County Kildare ended up with less individual tuition and a complete cut in home tuition; her views on whether this is a poor outcome when the unit is a dedicated autism treatment centre. [39917/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The home tuition scheme is primarily intended to provide compensatory instruction for pupils who have a medical ailment that is likely to cause major disruption to their attendance at school. My Department provides home tuition grants in respect of pupils who cannot attend school at all, or who are absent for a significant proportion of the school year. The Department also sanctions home tuition in cases where children await a suitable school placement.

The child to whom the Deputy refers was previously placed in a special school and availed of a number of hours home tuition grant each week to facilitate her access to the applied behavioural analysis, ABA, method of intervention.

At this stage the child has enrolled in the autism centre to which the Deputy refers. This centre provides tuition to children with autism predominantly through the ABA method. In the circumstances there is no longer any reason a home tuition grant would also be necessary.

The Department provides funding to the autism centre in question on the basis of one tutor for every child enrolled. In the circumstances I am satisfied this centre is sufficiently well resourced to provide whatever level of one to one support is required for this child.

At this stage, I advise the parents of this child to raise the issue of the centre providing their child with an appropriate level of one to one support directly with the centre. It is important that parents engage directly with the people responsible for the education of their children on an ongoing basis, whether in respect of children placed in mainstream primary schools, or in the type of autism centre to which the Deputy refers.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I raised the issue of this child because it seemed odd that, on the one hand, the child went to an unsuitable school in Palmerston where she received five hours tuition a day whereas at the suitable school she receives only three hours tuition a day. This will be gradual. The child also received home tuition on the basis that she was in an unsuitable school. She now receives fewer hours' tuition.

It seems arbitrary that since the child has been placed in a new school she is no longer entitled to home tuition. Is the Minister aware of the importance of a routine for a child, particularly one with autism? Would the Minister consider this area again and whether the activity is called home tuition or home support the tuition time for children in similar situations could be reduced gradually. In this case, however the child seems to lose out by going to a suitable school.

This school in Kildare was not listed on the Department's website. The parents found it. Maybe that has changed since and the details are on the site. The system seems to be very arbitrary. The home tuition should be provided when the child is in an unsuitable school but in this situation the child moved to a suitable school yet receives fewer hours' tuition. It does not add up.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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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.