Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 600: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has been drawn to the deficit of educational facilities for children with severe autism in the north Kerry area; her plans to redress same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5719/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am most anxious that all children, including children with autistic spectrum disorders, receive an education appropriate to their needs. My Department provides dedicated facilities for the education of children with autism nationally, including the area referred to by the Deputy. These include the creation of 159 special classes for children with autism attached to special schools and mainstream schools, of which seven have been established in the Kerry region; the establishment of 15 pre-school classes for children with autism, two of which are in the Kerry region, and the establishment of five special classes for children with Asperger's syndrome.

Furthermore, my Department sanctions home tuition grants for children with autism where such children are awaiting an appropriate school placement. In addition to the provision outlined above, my Department funds 12 autism specific facilities operating on a pilot basis. Some of these facilities provide an applied behavioural analysis, ABA, model of response which is one of a range of models of approach to the education of children with autism.

As the Deputy is probably aware, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is now operational. A specific function of the NCSE, through its network of local special educational needs organisers, SENOs, is to identify appropriate educational placements for all children with special educational needs, including children with autism. I can confirm that the SENOs will continue to examine additional requests for autism provision in the north Kerry area, where appropriate.

In the circumstances I am confident that the steps that I have outlined above, and those in hand, particularly the establishment of the NCSE, will ensure that appropriate educational provision can be put in place for all children with special educational needs, including children with autism in a timely manner.