Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Given the limited time available, I would like to focus on just a couple of issues. It is important to reiterate that since 2004, investment in special education has doubled to €900 million, 6,000 additional special education staff have been put in place and training for teachers has been dramatically improved. As the Minister for Education and Science has stated, the provisions of the Education for People with Special Educational Needs Act are being phased in and will, hopefully, be fully implemented by 2010.

This is a significant achievement, notwithstanding valid concerns expressed in recent years about the exact wording of the legislation and the timeframe for implementation. It is also important to point out that in managing the roll-out of special education provision in the field of autism, the Minister and her predecessors have been advised by the findings and recommendations of the task force on autism as well as other reports. That report states that there is no definitive evidence supporting one approach as being better than others for all children with ASDs or supporting a single approach for all aspects of development; nor is there evidence by which children can be matched to particular approaches.

This is what has led to the current policy favouring the eclectic approach over ABA, for example. However, there continues to be a clear disagreement about the benefits of ABA versus the eclectic model. ABA proponents cite many international studies which point to this methodology working far better for certain types of children with autism spectrum disorders. However, the task force report, the Northern Ireland task force report and the Magiati, Charman and Howlin report, referred to by the Minister, would say otherwise and that it is not good to focus on one particular intervention.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science has visited a number of facilities, ABA and State facilities, and both approaches seem to have their success stories. From the admittedly limited visit of the committee, it found the State-run units in primary schools were working successfully as integrated units. We also found much of merit within the ABA school in Drogheda. It was telling that when I asked where children who were not deemed suitable for the unit in the State school were sent, one of the places a child was referred to was an ABA school. That was, therefore, a sort of unofficial recognition that ABA suits children with specific requirements.

I am delighted that the programme for Government has negotiated long-term funding for 12 ABA schools. More needs to be done over the next few years and these schools will have to fit into the system. They can do that as centres of excellence focusing on ABA as part of an overall multifaceted approach. I hope the ongoing negotiations succeed in that regard.

There is a need to have a closer look at where we are going. It is now seven years since the task force on autism reported. International studies have been carried out since and they need to be reviewed and analysed. There is also an urgent requirement to look at the outcomes for the various methodologies and to compare them with children with various degrees of autism.

In summary, while Government policy follows a particular path on the basis of best information available, new information is always evolving. I look forward, as Chair of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science, to taking some of this new information on board and reviewing the autism report in due course.

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