Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is important we have fully qualified teachers to enable children to make progress. If all that can be offered is ABA, or there is an insistence that any other interventions used must be through ABA, the optimum environment is not in place to meet the full complexity and variety of need presented by children with autism, who need broad and multiple approaches. In supporting the use of a range of interventions rather than just one, the Government is doing what it is advised is in the best interests of children with autism.

A network of 277 special classes is now in place around the country. In the absence of this network, funding was provided for ABA centres as part of a pilot scheme.

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