Parents of nine children with autism in Co Wicklow have been told services will end next month. Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Jackie Caruana has seen dramatic changes in her three-year-old son Denis since he started receiving education at Barnacoyle pre-school last September.
"When he started he had no words. He had lost them all. Now he has 10-15 words. He's singing along with songs. He's more confident. If he wants to go out, he brings me to the back door of the house. They are things he couldn't have done in his wildest dreams before," says Ms Caruana.
Now, however, Ms Caruana and other parents at Barnacoyle pre-school for children with autism have been told that services for nine of the 16 students aged between two and six will cease by the end of next month due to funding shortages.
"We are families already under a lot of strain. I have three under-fives, which is a handful in itself. Denis is autistic, which places another strain on family life," says Ms Caruana. "I used to never complain. If someone at my table complained about food in a restaurant, I'd want to hide under the carpet. But now I have to fight, because he's my little boy."
The funding shortage surrounds the lack of a Departmental sanction for staff to teach nine children admitted to the school six months ago.
Acting chief executive officer of Barnacoyle pre-school's managing authority, Harry Cullen, told parents the school had not received an official response to requests for additional staff since May last year. As a result, the school would be forced to discontinue its services to these children by March 31st.
"We've been delivering services to these children from our own resources in the meantime and that has stretched us to an unacceptable limit," Mr Cullen said.
When asked whether it was irresponsible to admit children to the school without official sanction from the Department, he said: "We had to provide services to these children due to the absolute urgency of responding to their needs at an early age. Not providing these services would have been irresponsible."
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Mary Hanafin said officials had met representatives from the school recently and there had been no indication it would close its autism services.
"Following this meeting, a comprehensive letter was issued to Mr Cullen outlining the Department and the National Council for Special Education's position on the various matters discussed at the meeting. To date, no response to the Department's letter has been received from Mr Cullen," the Department spokeswoman said.
Mr Cullen said these matters related to corporate governance issues, which were being dealt with, according to an agreed timetable.
The frustration of parents at Barnacoyle reflects a wider sense of dissatisfaction over services for autistic children. Demand among parents for appropriate education services has grown in recent years due to increasing awareness that, with early intervention, many children with autism can be rescued from the worst effects of the condition or have their diagnosis changed.
Department funding for autism education has risen significantly in recent years, while a number of ABA schools (schools that use Applied Behaviour Analysis in their teaching methods) have been established. These include placements in special classes for children with autism, integration into mainstream school, as well as places for more than 150 children in eight ABA units - with another three units catering to more than 25 children funded as home programmes.
While such developments have been welcomed by parents, many units are often established as a result of lobbying by parents or High Court proceedings.
In the meantime, parents at Barnacoyle are determined to keep campaigning to secure Department funding to keep the service open for their nine children. They are lobbying TDs in surrounding constituencies and asking Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to intervene.
"We'll use everything we can to turn this around," says Jackie Caruana. "They are not statistics, they are beautiful little people. If I could take his autism on me and leave him well, I'd do it. In the absence of being able to do that, I have to be his voice and fight for him."