Alex White (Labour)

The Minister will have an opportunity to respond. I have had to listen to Easter lilies and everything else for the past two hours. I will take my last three speaking minutes.

I received a letter from the parents of an eight-year old autistic boy in Rathfarnham, Dublin. The father informed me that he could testify to the efficacy of the ABA methodology in reaching children such as his son. This is the evidence from individual experience as well as expert evidence in which I am interested.

The father also informed me that as a former research scientist, he could testify that ABA is the only remediation approach for which there is a peer-reviewed scientific basis for its effectiveness in helping such children. If this man is wrong, will the Minister tell me how he is wrong?

He continued in his letter that education in this country has been defined as the process that allows the individual to achieve their potential as a human being. ABA methods result in a large proportion of autistic children being prepared for and being able to participate in the mainstream. Those children who do not attain that level still benefit from undergoing this intensive teaching and learn better to attain some measure of control over their lives. ABA allows these people to achieve their potentials since in many cases the alternative would be them being institutionalised as they approach adulthood. He concluded it is therefore clear that even from something as coarse as a cost benefit analysis, it makes sense to make this investment in quality education of some of the weakest in our society.

What people are after is the impressive example the Minister outlined of a perceptible change in a community's attitude towards a child. That is what the Ó Cuanacháins and everyone else involved, not just the Minister, are about.