Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

In 1997, when I was appointed Minister for Education and Science, though it is hard to believe, there was no official recognition by the State of autism as a specific condition that demanded a specific education response. It is incredible but true that before this the special education review did not recognise autism. There was no pupil-teacher ratio for children with autism in mainstream schools, there were no special needs assistants in primary schools and very few resource teachers.

At that stage there were court cases involving parents anxious to secure places in American schools, particularly the Higashi school in Boston, which I visited. Many people involved in special education at the time were sceptical of that approach, yet the courts adjudicated that the Department should fund people to go to Boston. There was a dearth of research in the Department of Education and Science regarding what methodology represented the best approach to autism — the TEACCH methodology was popular at the time, though PECS was also prominent.

In this context the first ABA pilot scheme began and the term "pilot" was applied to ensure it would be properly evaluated and that lessons would be learned regarding its broader applicability. We have come a long way since then in terms of the thousands of resource teachers and special needs assistants, SNAs, that have since been appointed. The integration of special needs into mainstream education was successful and was not a social experiment, as Deputy Kenny called it last week, but a valid approach to educating children.

I believe that court is not the best place to decide the best methodology of teaching. I do not believe "one size fits all" education can work as the autistic spectrum is a continuum with different manifestations in different children in terms of severity, dependency and so forth. I set up the first ABA pilot and parents responded positively to it but some I spoke to felt other aspects of education could be enhanced more in the methodology, such as communication skills, speech therapy and so forth. As the Minister noted yesterday, the idea of a broad range of methodologies is not a ludicrous suggestion and through proper engagement and dialogue with all concerned we can try to work out the best resolution to this issue.

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