Home Tuition Scheme Administration

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 November 2014

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Questions (436)

Thomas P. Broughan

Question:

436. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 152 of 12 November 2014, her views that correspondence (details supplied) between officials in her Department clearly demonstrates that the Department did in fact engage in correspondence with a third party regarding the approval of home tuition for individual children which is directly at variance with her reply of 12 November 2014; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45112/14]

Written answers

Minister for Education and Skills

The documents to which the Deputy refers relate to correspondence between a pre-school provider and my Department relating to payment arrangements for children for whom home tuition had already been approved.

Applications for home tuition for individual children are considered and approved on a case by case basis and with reference to criteria specific to the circumstances of the children in question. Applications for home tuition can only be made by parents or legal guardians of children.

However as outlined in the response to the parliamentary question to which the Deputy refers this does not mean that the Department would not facilitate parents of children who are eligible for Home Tuition who, having secured the approval of the Department, wished to enter an arrangement with a private provider and to have payments, normally due to eligible parents, made directly to that provider by agreement and at a group payment rate.