Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

In her speech on Private Members' business in the Dáil on 12 February, the Minister acknowledged special needs education has undergone a transformation in the past ten years. Credit must be given to the Minister and her predecessors for putting in place the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004 and providing extra resources and funding for special educational needs.

Several key issues have been highlighted in the controversy that has blown up about appropriate education for children with autism and autism spectrum disorder. There are other issues, however, that have not been addressed regarding the education of children with autism.

The first issue concerns the continuum of services. Services available to children with autism around the country are patchy, uncoordinated and deeply unsatisfactory as far as individual families and parents are concerned. There is a necessity in the special educational needs area to have appropriate preschool, primary and post-primary education services that flow on seamlessly and are age appropriate and appropriate to the developmental needs of the child.

Home tuition is available, with some struggle, for parents with children with autism. Children under three years of age are entitled to ten hours per week of home tuition. A child over three years is entitled to 20 hours home tuition. The parents must organise this for themselves. It may not always be desirable to have education occur within the family home. A choice to parents for alternative preschool education is not available.

Barnacoyle ABA preschool in County Wicklow is not funded or recognised by the Government. It exists because of the diligent fund-raising efforts of its parents and committee. It is a precarious basis on which to run a school. The parents do not know from month to month or year to year whether the school can continue.

When children from the school are considered to be ready to move on, there are no special primary education services for them in the county. Their parents, if lucky, can send their children to the nearest appropriate school which is in the Minister's constituency of Dún Laoghaire. They also may try to get a place in St. Catherine's special school in County Wicklow which, because it is a segregated environment, may not be an appropriate educational environment for children who have benefitted from preschool ABA input. Often they may be ready for a special unit in a mainstream primary school but that is not available in the county.

Unfortunately, when it comes to post-primary education the continuum is far from satisfactory. There are serious gaps in the services with much depending on geographical location. Parents fortunate to live in an area with a specially designated ABA school can be reassured their child will receive an appropriate and specially tailored education. For those who do not, they must do with whatever is available.

All that families with children with autism are arguing for is an acceptable continuum of services for their children. It should be the same no matter where one lives. We must work towards this. It is the responsibility of the Minister for Education and Science to ensure services are put in place so these gaps between different counties and regions disappear. Children with autism must be guaranteed the same continuum of educational services that able-bodied children are entitled to and their parents expect.

There is a dearth of research findings in the ABA approach in an Irish context. I hope the Minister will use the 12 pilot schools, for which funding has been provided for in the programme for Government, as centres of excellence. Specific research into ABA must be carried out in these centres so that we can begin to accumulate a body of evidence-based research in an Irish context of the efficacy or otherwise of the ABA approach.

I have examined international research into the ABA approach and I find it convincing.

It is peer reviewed and meets best practice in terms of research methodology. I agree with other speakers in that I have not seen research findings that support the mixed or eclectic approach. I am open to looking at them but I have not been provided with any of these results. I hope the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science will consider a presentation of the findings supporting the eclectic and ABA approaches in order that the members can make their own assessment of how convincing the research findings are.

The most important thing in terms of research is the outcome experienced by the child as a result of a particular methodology. Other speakers have mentioned the unnecessary focus on methodology as opposed to the child-centred approach. The most important aspect of any methodology is that it produces the best possible outcome for the child. Unfortunately, while these debates and arguments about methodology continue, children are going through schools and facilities in which we cannot be absolutely sure they are achieving the best possible outcome. That is why it is important that we emphasise research.

I ask that the message be communicated strongly to the Minister that this House considers it highly important that research, specifically in an Irish context in recognised ABA schools, is carried out almost immediately and that the focus is on outcomes. I have no doubt, because they have been so convincing, that parents of children who are going through this process feel the outcomes for their children are best when the ABA approach is used. If we carry out evidence-based research in schools I am sure the instincts of the parents will be borne out.