Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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139. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will justify the changes in the July provision of home tuition for children with autism, whereby siblings will be treated as a group and not be provided with the one to one tuition that they had previously received. [23151/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the July Education Programme is available to all special schools and mainstream primary schools with special classes catering for children with autism who choose to extend their education services through the month of July. My Department also provides for a July Programme for pupils with a severe/profound general learning disability. Where school based provision is not feasible, 10 hours per week home based provision may be grant aided to eligible pupils. Therefore the home based scheme is designed to support children who are not in a position to attend school, and it is generally the case that the Tuition is provided at the child's place of residence. In the vast majority of cases therefore, there will be 1 child in receipt of tuition with 1 tutor providing tuition. However in a small number of cases where there are qualifying siblings, a combined allocation is made. As Home Tuition is intended to compensate for school based provision it is reasonable to reflect the school grouping principle and allocate to siblings accordingly. For example, in a school setting one teacher is allocated to a class of six pupils with autism. Accordingly it is considered appropriate that a tutor can provide collective tuition to members of one family in the home at the same time.

Further clarity on this issue has been included on the information note accompanying the application forms for the home based scheme this year.