Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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811. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 549 of 12 May 2015, in view of the statement in departmental records dated 18 June 2007, which noted the benefit of the social contribution of this collective scenario, as proposed by the one private commercial organisation, the reason her Department, over the past seven years, did not inform all parents of the possibility of setting up a group arrangement for their children who had been diagnosed with autism, and who were in receipt of the home tuition grant. [20022/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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As previously outlined, parents of children who are eligible for home tuition who sought alternative arrangements to be put in place for their tuition, were facilitated and arrangements were put in place with private commercial organisations, nominated by the parents, which provide group tuition to children in a class type setting. Payment in these cases is made directly to the service provider and is calculated on a group rate basis.

The group arrangements to which the Deputy refers were not a feature of the Home Tuition Scheme at that time, and were accordingly not referenced in the annual Home Tuition Circular.

In recognition of the demand for group arrangements by parents of children who are eligible for Home Tuition under the terms of the scheme, my Department is now advising parents of the option to enter into a group arrangement with other parents of children for whom home tuition has been approved. Parents wishing to enter into such an arrangement must notify my Department in advance for approval.