The father of a three-year-old autistic girl has stepped up his campaign to get her a suitable education by submitting plans for a special school for her and 11 other autistic children to the Department of Education.
Mr Marc de Salvo has already spent more than £30,000 building and operating a classroom for his daughter, Jessica, in his back garden in Celbridge, Co Kildare.
The Department of Education refused to fund the classroom and Mr de Salvo was forced to remortgage his house. He said yesterday that one-to-one tuition for the 12 autistic children - using a method known as applied behavioural analysis (ABA) - was the best way to help Jessica and others to live independently later in life.
It would also help them enter mainstream schooling, he said. State funding would show "that even the most needy of our children are receiving their right to a free primary education".
The school will concentrate on ABA instead of the TEACCH method favoured by the Department of Education.
He claimed there was no scientific evidence that TEACCH worked and it was favoured by the State, among other reasons, because it was cheaper than ABA.
He said far more than 12 children needed ABA education in Dublin and Kildare, but he could only guarantee 12 children an education at this stage, although it might expand in future years. The school will be known as the Saplings School.
There are understood to be up to 100 cases currently before the courts involving parents of autistic children seeking to get them an appropriate education.
The Department has responded by setting up an autism task force which will report shortly. It has also increased spending on special needs education.
However, it has been criticised for appealing a High Court judgment in favour of an autistic man, Mr Jamie Sinnott, and his mother, Kathryn.
A local farmer has given Mr de Salvo a site near Naas, Co Kildare, and he is now looking for funding from the Department. He estimates that staffing the school will cost about £264,000 a year, buildings about £103,950 and school furniture and fittings about £10,000.
There will be other smaller costs. He said prefabricated buildings had been priced and could be on site within eight weeks.
Mr de Salvo, along with other parents, has secured the services of Mr Ken Kerr, a leading authority on ABA in the Republic, as "lead teacher".
Mr de Salvo met the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, in early April and submitted his proposal a short time later. Yesterday a spokesman said "this proposal is under consideration in the overall context of provision for children with autism".
Mr de Salvo said the school would open in September with or without Department funding and several companies had offered support.
In a letter to Dr Woods he states: "I will move forward to open the school anyway and seek funding from the private sector. I have no wish to do this, as it will mean considerably more work for the parents involved."
He said Jessica had recently spoken her first words and was making progress with the ABA method. This involves autistic children learning simple tasks like sitting and walking. These tasks are broken into tiny steps and the child learns them through repetition.
TEACCH is based on a more formal structure.
Any parent wishing to contact Marc de Salvo can e-mail solagy@indigo.ie