Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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692. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 912 and 913 of 26 May 2015, in which she stated that her Department has no contract with the provider in question, or any other provider, in respect of the home tuition scheme, if she will explain the statement of the Comptroller and Auditor General in his annual report of 29 September 2015 that providers invoice her Department directly for the services delivered, a statement which appears to indicate that a contract does exist; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34739/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Where parents of children who are eligible for home tuition have sought alternative arrangements to be put in place for the tuition my Department has responded and facilitated by putting arrangements in place with private commercial organisations which provide group tuition to children in a class type setting.

The arrangements facilitate the transfer of home tuition payments to the provider and a reduction of the rates paid in recognition of the fact that the service is less expensive than normal, as the children are tutored together. These arrangements take account of the fact that children are tutored in group settings giving rise to significant cost savings.

In his Report, on the Report of the Accounts of the Public Services, 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General notes that the Department does not engage in a competitive procurement process for the provision of classroom-based tuition by specialist providers. Instead, the Department each year agrees a fee basis with the specialist providers in respect of tuition delivered to children approved for home tuition.

This is an acknowledgement that parents of children, who are eligible for Home Tuition under the Department's scheme, have the freedom and flexibility to select the specialist provider themselves, subject to the provider's agreement to comply with the general provisions of the scheme and to the cost and payment arrangements set out be the Department.

In all such cases the contract under which the services of the provider are provided to the eligible child exists between the service provider and the parents.

While the Department has considered the possibility of tendering for such services, the Department is conscious that the procurement of such services centrally through a procurement process would remove the option from parents of selecting their preferred provider.

However, the Department is currently exploring the use of procurement frameworks which might allow for agreement of a pricing structure, but with flexibility in relation to volume and drawdown of service and has sought and is awaiting advice from the new Office of Government Procurement (OGP) on this possibility.