Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me an opportunity to raise this important issue.

The Government has a poor record in assisting children with special needs. In the most recent budget many special needs assistants lost their jobs and the forthcoming budget and four year plan include plans to axe further special needs assistants. This is a disgrace.

The Government has turned its back on sufferers of dyslexia. When the country was wealthy it did not carry out a study to discover how many children suffer from the condition. For the past ten years, the Department of Education and Skills has not once increased the small annual grant of €63,500 it provides to the Dyslexia Association of Ireland. The Government clearly has the wrong priorities when it fails to adequately fund associations such as the DAI and chooses instead to pay lip service to their work. It has squandered billions of euro in the past ten years and it is the most vulnerable who are paying the price.

I propose to raise some questions on Government policy on educational provision for children with autism spectrum disorder. It is estimated that the Department of Education and Skills has spent in excess of €80 million on a pilot project for ABA schools in the past ten years. The project was terminated without undertaking a proper evaluation of the effectiveness of the ABA pilot schools.

During a recent meeting with parents of children in one of the pilot schools a departmental official referred to a 2006 report entitled, An Evaluation of Educational Provision for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, which features details of visits to some of the ABA pilot schools carried out in 2001-02. The decision to close the ABA schools was based on reviews which had taken place eight years previously in a sample of the pilot schools. This is an example of highly flawed decision making.

Having spent almost €80 million on a pilot project, the Government has failed to evaluate the project adequately. This failure and the absence of a proper cost benefit analysis of ABA schools is a wanton waste of taxpayers' money and a dereliction of duty on the part of the Government.

The Department decided to replace ABA schools with special schools and ASD units which employ what is described as an eclectic approach to educating children with autism. However, no research has been produced to support the use of the Department's preferred approach. Departmental officials admitted recently that this was the case and the Department does not have any plans to evaluate ASD units.

The Minister for Education and Skills is pumping millions of euro into a teaching model whose effectiveness has not been evaluated. She clearly does not have an interest in the children who are affected by this decision. ABA schools have produced terrific results for children with autism. The Government should listen to the views expressed by parents on the teaching methods they want to have provided for their children. The young children in question deserve better from the State. They are being let down by the decisions that have been taken on this matter. Consequently, I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, to ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills to re-examine this issue.

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