The education provided by the State to a young autistic boy has fallen "woefully short" of his needs, the High Court was told yesterday.
Over one year, the State provided just 60 hours of "intervention", including five hours of speech therapy and no occupational therapy, it was claimed.
The frustrated parents of Colum McNabb (4) ultimately set up their own home-based tuition programme for Colum and have now opened a special school for six autistic children in Galway city.
The school operates Applied Behaviour Analysis which involves a one to one pupil-teacher ratio. It was opened in September 2001 with the parents providing some two-thirds of the funding and the remainder coming from the State through "home-tuition" payments.
Mr Michael Cush SC, for Colum, yesterday opened an action in which the boy, suing through his mother, Mrs Nichola McNabb, of Cluain Aoibh, Moycullen, Galway, is seeking a declaration that the State has failed in its constitutional duty to provide free primary education for Colum appropriate to his needs and orders requiring the State to provide such education.
Mr Cush said Colum was diagnosed as autistic in February 2000.
Autsim was a complex condition and children with autism required early intervention through an intensive programme delivered by properly trained staff.
However, what the State provided for Colum fell woefully short of what was appropriate to his needs. Mr Cush said the McNabbs strong preference was for the ABA method, but the court was not required to decide that the ABA method was better than others. He would be calling evidence from experts to the effect the ABA method was appropriate for Colum.
The hearing before Mr Justice Lavan resumes on Tuesday.