Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

Yes.

One of the great joys of being a parent is the moment one's child goes to school. Finally, one's five-year-old can take his or her first steps into the unknown where new things are learned and new friends are made. It is a moment of great independence in the life of a child and one of great joy in the life of parents. It is marked out by excitement when every day one's child comes home with something new and different to tell one. That wonderful experience, thankfully, is the case for the vast majority of parents in this country where young children take their place in an education system that is modern, caring and, in the main, well-resourced.

What about those children who are not so fortunate? What support do we offer them and their parents? It is not an exaggeration to say that the range of supports offered to children with special educational needs in this country is nothing short of scandalous. Despite new legislation, many commitments, new funding and promises of better co-ordination between Departments, we are still a long way short of what needs to be provided.

By far the most important thing we need is a new approach by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. It is not too late for the Minister to start listening and stop hectoring parents on this issue. It is not too late for the Minister to show the kind of flexibility and imagination that her predecessors, the Ministers, Deputy Noel Dempsey and Deputy Micheál Martin, showed during their time in Marlborough Street. I know that Fianna Fáil backbenchers are sick of the "it's my way or no way" attitude that the current Minister for Education and Science deploys when dealing with this issue and so many other aspects of education. Those same backbenchers will have a chance to have their voices heard tonight and tomorrow night.

I want this debate to focus on the needs of parents with autistic children. Nobody is suggesting that the applied behavioural analysis, ABA, model is the only model for children with autism. ABA is one of a number of educational approaches used for children with autism. It has proven to be an extraordinarily effective method for many autistic children, with many eventually moving on to mainstream schooling.

The autism-specific classes the Minister is now establishing may well provide the kind of educational environment for children with a range of special needs. Nobody is suggesting otherwise but what about those children who have been assessed as needing a more intensive one-to-one approach away from the mainstream schooling? That is currently not on offer by the Minister or her Department. She is implacably opposed to a more flexible arrangement whereby those ABA schools which are currently outside the existing pilot schools would be recognised formally within the education sector.

Parents want the best for their children. The parents of autistic children have to fight every step of the way to obtain justice for their children. Despite the bullying and tut-tutting by the Minister and her Department, parents rightly demand the most suitable and effective model of education that meets their children's needs.

A child currently attending an ABA school spends on average six and a half hours a day within that school. This compares to the four and a half daily hours of attendance in an autism-specific class. ABA schools operate on average 230 days a year compared to the 183 days in the context of the model proposed by the Minister. The ABA system is based on one tutor to each child, while the Minister offers one teacher and two special needs assistants to six children in her preferred model.

If I was the parent of a child with autism and saw remarkable changes in my child as a result of ABA tuition, I would have no hesitation in demanding that my child remained within that system because that is the best system to meet his or her specific needs.

The Minister needs to answer a number of questions in the context of this debate. How many teachers currently involved in teaching ABA and other methods in mainstream schools are trained to the appropriate level? How many teachers have received any training in ABA? Is it true that only a handful of teachers have received one 60-hour training session in order to equip them with the necessary skills to teach autistic children? What training does an special needs assistant have to deal with an autistic child?

The current system of assessment for children with autism is completely inadequate. It is estimated that the waiting list is somewhere between 18 months and two years. Given that all the scientific evidence points to the fact that early intervention is vital in terms of helping an autistic child reach his or her full potential, many children are missing out on treatment and tuition in their early stages of life and are at a disadvantage from the beginning.

The Department has provided ABA funding for 12 centres that have been up and running for several years but has refused to extend it to 12 other applicant schools, including three existing ABA schools which are funded independently by parents pooling together their home tuition allowance and making extraordinary commitments to fund raise on an annual basis as a means of demanding proper education for their children. I have seen one of those schools. The Minister should put on the record of the House how many ABA schools she has visited since she became Minister for Education and Science. We see plenty of photographs of smiling, happy children in the mainstream setting with the Minister, but how many ABA schools has she visited since she became Minister? If she had visited those schools, she would have seen an extraordinary commitment on the part of parents. Some schools raise €250,000 per year as a means of helping those children get the educational support they need.

The existing 12 ABA pilot schools currently funded by the Government have been in negotiations with the Department since the election. The Department is seeking to have their staff, many of whom are trained psychologists, have Master's degrees in ABA and otherwise, complete the Hibernia College course for primary school teachers and will not recognise them as teachers unless they have completed the honours Irish examination. This is despite the fact that any child who is autistic and enters mainstream education is automatically exempt from studying Irish. If ever there was an example of a systems failure and an inability to fit different modes and methods within the formalised education structure, this is it.

It is estimated that, including the children currently attending the three ABA applicant schools that are already up and running, there are at least 400 children waiting for ABA tuition. The Department suggests that the reason it does not favour ABA centres for pupils with autism is not related to resources. It suggests that each child with autism is unique and, therefore, should have access to a range of different interventions to meet their individual needs within a mainstream setting.

Parents would be delighted to send their autistic children to a mainstream school with adequate supports if that is what their child has been prescribed. However, the reality is that there are many parents who receive official assessments from psychologists recommending that their child is in need of ABA tuition and there are few suitable services available. While some children will thrive in the model put forward by the Minister, there are a certain number who will regress as a result of this kind of tuition. I agree with the Minister's suggestion that every child is unique. That is why not all children are suited to a combination of methods. Some children need ABA for a certain period and that is the system that has worked so well for so many children.

The Government taskforce on autism completed a report in 2001, which outlined a number of recommendations, including specific recommendations relating to the roles, responsibilities and rights of parents, and in particular, ensuring that "parents have primacy in the decision making process as soon as their child has been identified as having particular educational needs". They must be entitled to make an informed choice on the educational placement of their child. That is the key issue. The main emphasis placed by the task force was giving parents the right, in consultation with the Department, to make that choice for their child. The current system takes that choice away from many parents by demanding a system and a form that the Department has applied, which does not have the support of all the parents concerned.

The co-author of this report, Dr. Rita Honan, has suggested that the Minister's policy on education for autistic children is misguided. She said that research for the past 40 years shows that up to half of the children who engage in ABA as their primary method of pre-school intervention go on to mainstream education without any additional supports. The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 was introduced as a means of putting the provision of education for persons with special educational needs on a new footing. The National Council for Special Education produced an implementation report following this Act which included a detailed proposed timeline for the implementation of the various sections of the Act. The Minister recently suggested that she will not strictly adhere to the council's recommendations as further work and analysis and further discussion with the partners is required.

There is no means of appeal for parents other than pursuing their child's right to educational services through the courts. Cian and Yvonne Ó Cuanacháin, who I welcome to the House tonight, took a 68-day action in the High Court to oblige the State to provide applied behavioural analysis for their son, Seán. The action was regarded as a test case for autistic children seeking ABA education. Once again, the Department of Education and Science prefers to wrestle parents through the courts who are seeking justice for their children. It is a David and Goliath contest in which the vast resources of the State are pitted against parents who know what works for their children and what is in their best interests. How many other Ó Cuanacháin type cases must we see go through the courts before the Minister comes to her senses?

I want a guarantee from the Minister this evening that any third party costs arising from the case in which the Ó Cuanacháins were held liable will be met in full by the State. As I said to her in an Adjournment debate two weeks ago, on which she did not reply to the substance of the issue I raised, I want a guarantee that if the Ó Cuanacháins are lumbered with third party costs, the State will pay that amount.

The Minister recently stated that the special education appeals board was appointed in April 2007. She stated also that the board is working to ensure that appropriate structures and processes are put in place once the relevant sections of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act have come into being. We do not have an appeals system in place. We will not have an appeals system until 2009 and none of the Minister's propaganda to date can indicate otherwise.

I have received many e-mails from parents in the past few days but one e-mail outlines the exact position. I want to put it on the record to ensure we can understand what these parents are going through. It states:

Our son who will be 5 in April has Down Syndrome and was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum in December 2007.

He has no communication skills, he can't dress himself . . . . He can feed himself with some assistance. He doesn't follow any instructions and going for a walk is a challenge because he doesn't understand the concept of danger.

His psychologist has recommended one on one intervention using a behavioural approach but the Department of Education cannot meet this requirement. Instead they are trying to persuade us to send him to an autism unit attached to a special school . . . . He does not function well in group settings . . . . The minister ... said on the News at One on 30 January that all children's needs are being met locally and that the DES is setting up special classes in local schools ... There are no autism units [where we live]. The only state funded ABA school [in our area] has a waiting list of 42.

The final paragraph states:

We are tired of fighting for an appropriate education for our son. The stress has affected us as parents and our other children. We need proper help.

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