Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Let me return to the issue of isolation rooms. I understand they were funded by the Department of some stage; I do not know how they could have been built otherwise. There are no national guidelines to govern their use. Boards of management are actually making the call on them and, very often, there are no parents associated with the ASD units on the boards of management. Decisions of boards of management, as one might understand, are really dominated by the concern of the school in general and are very often at the expense of children with autism.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I believe there is something seriously wrong. Such rooms are actually being banned in parts of America and Canada at present because they contravene the human rights of children. The Minister should ban their use until he researches what is actually taking place and comes up with a national strategy as to how they should be used, if they are to be used at all.

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