The State does “not take lightly” any decision to defend cases taken against it by parents seeking resources for children with special needs, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said.
Mr Ahern was responding to a report that the Departments of Education and Health have spent some €22 million on such court cases in the past five years.
it's a pity that so many of them go to court but the Department of Education do not challenge unless they believe they have followed the correct procedures. - Bertie Ahern
Legal costs for both departments against parents seeking services for their children stand at €19.2m since 2003, with settlements adding a further €2.7 million to the bill, according to figures given to Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said 73 cases were active involving children with special educational needs, but only four had gone to a full court hearing since 2003 and three of those went in the department’s favour while the other is still undecided.
“Neither I, nor my department, take lightly any decision to defend cases concerning children with special educational needs,” she said in a parliamentary reply to Mr Hayes.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said there was "no doubt about it" that it would be better if such money wasn’t spent on legal costs but he said the Department of Education does not initiate such cases.
“They do not take lightly, any decision to defend cases concerning children with special needs so people take them on and then they have to respond,” he said.
Mr Ahern said such cases were generally only litigated where no potential settlement was acceptable to both sides.
“The State has an obligation under the Constitution to provide for primary education and, in the context of children with special needs or special education needs, the education must be appropriate to their requirements,” he said.
“The State decides on an appropriate form of provision having regard to the advice that is available from the relevant experts, and that normally is the National Educational Psychological Service Agency (NEPS) or the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).
“So that’s what happens in these cases and it’s a pity that so many of them go to court but the Department of Education do not challenge unless they believe they have followed the correct procedures.”
Speaking at the opening of a new Barnardos family support centre in Dublin’s north inner-city, Mr Ahern said the Government was now spending “literally hundreds of millions” on special needs and resource teachers.
“We have something like 15,000 extra posts created. But there is always a demand and a pressure for more and more.
“The State has to fund these and the taxpayer is funding them. You and I are paying for them.
“The developments in these services have just been incredible in the last number of years. In accordance with the procedures in cases involving damages or compensation from the State, costs are generally charged to the State Solicitor's office if they are sanctioned by the Attorney General so it’s the State that carries these costs.”
In January, the High Court ruled that Cian and Yvonne Ó Cuanacháin were not entitled to costs in an unsuccessful case in which they sought to force the State to provide their son Seán with a special teaching method, known as ABA, for children with autism.
The overall cost of the case, which ran for 69 days, was estimated at €5 million.