Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

This motion is about choice. Some people with autism are allowed access to ABA and some are not. At a time when we are talking about career pathways, education continuance and using buzz words like "cradle to the grave", there are people included and others excluded. Tonight we stand at a very important juncture in terms of educational inclusivity.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, Fine Gael's spokesperson on education, for tabling this motion because there are a number of very serious questions to be answered. There are questions from a mother whose son is No. 59 on a waiting list for an ABA place in Drogheda. There are questions from a mother whose son had funding removed when he was aged six and who now has to provide home tuition for him from her own funds. That particular child, who is now seven years old, has never been to school. We talk about continuance and inclusivity and yet here is a child who has never been to school and whose mother is funding private tuition at home.

What of the parents who are living with the daily fear that their child will end up in an institution at 12 years of age? Where is the career pathway, the career progression, the ambition and the vision for that 12 year old child? That is the fear of parents at the moment. What of the continuum of education for children with mild Asperger's syndrome, when they reach the age of 18 and are still with their parents, who must rear them as if they were still 14 years old? Where is the ambition, support, inclusivity and the continuum?

What of early intervention and second-chance education for everybody? The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, at every official function, will talk about second-chance education but what we are talking about here is first-chance education. People are being precluded from first-chance education. I leave the House with one lasting thought — for the seven year old boy who has never been to school, where is the first chance?

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