Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputies Joan Burton and Ciarán Lynch.

I make a special plea for Barnacoyle school in my constituency. Interim measures were urgently needed for that school, in terms of sanction for primary, preschool and post-primary classes and training grants for special needs assistants. I urge the Minister to ensure this school is provided with the interim measures needed. It also needs to be included in negotiations between the Irish Autism Action and the 12 pilot schools.

This issue goes to the core of the values of our society. It is about cherishing children equally, giving the family special status and the universal right to education and the protection of the most vulnerable. Government Members in Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have tried to imply that this debate is a publicity stunt. It received publicity, and rightly so, but the debate is much more important. It is about changing public policy. This motion is a challenge to the reality faced by many parents waiting months or years for assessments for their children, and forced to go to the courts because no appeals system is up and running.

I pay tribute to Yvonne and Cian Ó Cuanacháin, who were hammered over and over by the State, using our money, to stop a little boy getting the schooling his parents know is best for him. It is about a Fianna Fáil Minister who is ignorant to the point of pigheadedness. It is about promises made by the Green Party that it betrayed as soon as the election was over.

I have met the families of children in County Wicklow, brave honourable people who deserve every support we can give. They know that applied behavioural analysis, ABA, is suitable for their children and that, for some, ABA will enable the child to make it to a mainstream school. Yet, the Minister for Education and Science has not even visited an ABA school. She is "grossly misguided" on applied behavioural analysis policy, she has failed to educate herself on educational interventions and she "makes very basic errors when referring to Applied Behavioural Analysis". These are the words of the co-author of the taskforce report on autism, Dr. Rita Honan.

Interestingly, neither the Minister nor the Department has published evidence against ABA. The Government's resistance to ABA appears to arise from vindictiveness and penny pinching. If there is evidence, let us have it. At the moment, there is a contradictory policy whereby 12 schools are sanctioned and those outside will not be.

Parents are trying to cope with many problems in their family setting. Children with autism are locked in to their world and have a range of difficulties. In many cases, ABA can unlock them from the prison. We must ensure that the possibilities are available to parents and children. Instead the Government has slammed the door on these children.

Many Members were e-mailed by a parent. She asked us what we would do if it was one of our children. The answer is very simple and we know what we would do. In a country as rich as Ireland, children should be given the best chance in their childhood.

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