Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this serious issue. Achieve ABA school in Donaghmede was established to provide education for autistic children. It was founded by a group of parents whose children's needs were not being catered for by the Department of Education and Science. The Minister for Education and Science provides a home tuition allowance to the parents of the children attending this school. However, the allowance only covers 50% of the costs and as a result parents must come up with the other 50%, which is placing an enormous financial strain on them. To make matters worse, the Minister now only provides the home tuition allowance on a monthly basis. Meanwhile, parents are left not knowing whether they will receive this allowance. This is a national disgrace. The school is unable to plan for the future and cannot give tutors a guarantee that they will be paid.

The ABA model is viewed worldwide as the best way to educate autistic children. While it does not work for every autistic child, it has achieved outstanding results among many children. Only last week, we witnessed the Ó Cuanacháin family being dragged through the courts as they fought to obtain education for their child, Seán. They now face a massive legal bill. It is one of the great scandals of this Republic that the parents of autistic children still have to go through the courts as a means of getting justice for their children because the education system has failed them so disgracefully over a period of prolonged prosperity. There are 12 Government-funded ABA schools in operation on a pilot scheme. The Minister for Education and Science stated recently in the Dáil that no more ABA schools will be built or funded and that all autistic children will be taught in mainstream schools. All other ABA schools are now at risk because of the Department's intended position that these children will attend mainstream schools, whether they can manage or not. However, students are attending ABA schools because mainstream schools are not providing for their needs.

I urge the Minister to recognise Achieve ABA school in Donaghmede and to allocate funding annually to the school. I invite her to visit Achieve ABA and witness at first hand the excellent work it is conducting in educating autistic children. By visiting this school, the Minister will realise she is wrong to deny it a place on her pilot programme. Allocating funding to 12 ABA schools in Ireland and ignoring the other ABA schools is grossly unjust. All autistic children have the right to access the same standard of education. The Minister's policy of not providing funding for additional ABA schools means that many autistic children are missing out on the best chance of leading a normal and productive life. International research for the past 40 years has shown that up to half of children who engage in ABA as their primary method of preschool intervention go on to mainstream education without additional supports.

The Minister's approach, which provides a range of educational approaches, is not working for lower functioning children. It is obvious that both ABA local schools for autistic children and mainstream places are needed. The Government's approach is useless to a large percentage of lower functioning children who need ABA schools. The Minister should concentrate on developing a model to meet the teaching needs of all children with autism. She should cherish all the children of the nation equally and not treat autistic children in Ireland as second class citizens.

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