The father of a four-year-old autistic girl, Mr Marc de Salvo, who was forced to build a classroom for her in his back garden, was finally able to move her and 11 children into a fully-fledged school in Co Kildare yesterday.
Mr de Salvo and the other parents said the opening of the facility, near Kill, was a dream come true.
Along with campaigner Ms Kathy Sinnott, Mr de Salvo has become a high-profile part of the campaign for autistic children in recent years. He has previously remortgaged his house to pay for his daughter Jessica's education.
The Saplings school, which caters for children from three to eight, was opened by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, who is also one of the local TDs.
He acknowledged to the parents that special education services were neglected for many years.
"Thankfully, we are now moving into a more enlightened era where the needs of these children are attracting the attention and the resources that they require," said the Minister.
Mr de Salvo and the other parents have been involved in a succession of court cases and confrontations with civil servants and politicians about opening such a school.
While the parents initially depended on fundraising and the donation of land by a developer, in recent months the Department of Education has provided money.
The facilities at the school are far superior to most national schools. According to Mr Ken Kerr, director of education at the school, the children's behaviour can be videotaped and their progress monitored.
He said the applied behavioural analysis (ABA) method of tuition would be used at the school.
He said it would be one-on-one tuition which would greatly help the children, with some of them then able to enter mainstream education.
There was now a network of such ABA schools but funding for them was "piecemeal" and parents still had to fight to get money. He said while special schools promoted by the Department of Education were adequate for some children, they did not offer one-on-one tuition.
Also attending the opening was Dr TE Gabriel Stewart, who works with autistic adults. He said a new treatment for autistic people which helped to detoxify their bodies was proving very effective.