In the wake of the Jamie Sinnott case it might be thought the problem of the education of autistic children has been solved. Not so, according to their parents.
There are now about 100 cases pending in the courts where the parents of autistic children are seeking what they consider appropriate education for their children.
According to one of them, Mr Marc de Salvo, parents are being put through unnecessary hardship by the Department of Education as they face lengthy delays, stressful litigation and the realisation that every day lost has implications for the long-term prospects of their children.
"The neural pathways of such children change up to the age of seven, and they can be greatly helped," he said. "The window of opportunity between diagnosis and the cut-off point is short. It costs between £1,200 and £1,800 a month to fund the programme that helps these children."
In one case already, where the parents sought a judicial review of a decision by the Department not to fund the case, the judge suggested the Department fund a programme in what is known as an ICANDO school to the amount of £1,300 a month in the interim, before a full hearing. This school uses the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) method of teaching autistic children.
Mr de Salvo, whose three-year-old daughter is autistic, favours a system "like the one in England where the children do not have to go to court and are instead assessed by educational specialists who in turn make recommendations to the local education authority.
"The UK Mental Health Foundation also says that if you don't intervene with autistic children, they will cost the state £2.9 million sterling."
As a more cost-effective alternative, Mr de Salvo points to a report from the foundation on early intervention and autism, which recommends that £75,000 should be spent on a child with autism within the first three years of diagnosis. "This would allow me to run Jessica's programme for three years, by which time she will be capable of attending a mainstream school."
There have been out-of-court settlements with a number of parents, and Mr de Salvo is confident the courts would uphold the right of such children to the most effective education available. However, he says, by fighting these cases the Department is ensuring that only those who can take their cases to court will require funding.
The Department would deny this, but because of the pending litigation will not comment.
The education being offered to children with special needs is not acceptable to many parents, particularly those of autistic children. "The Department of Education recognises all primary teachers as qualified to teach autistic children," said a legal source close to some parents. "Yet the person in charge of the B.Ed course in Trinity College gave evidence in the Sinnott case that they were not so qualified."
There is also some controversy about different teaching methods for children suffering from autism. The Department of Education favours a method called TEACCH, which has a pupil-teacher ratio of six to one. However, the parents taking the cases favour the ABA method, which has a one-to-one pupil-teacher ratio and is therefore much more expensive. It is, according to the parents, also much more effective. The Department itself set up an ABA school in Cork. While it has not been officially assessed yet, it has been very successful and some children were transferred to mainstream schools. As a result the demand for it has escalated, and it has expanded from six to 24 places.