The State has agreed to fully fund, until it finds a viable alternative, a school for autistic children which has been set up by parents in Galway city.
The funding agreement is part of the settlement of an action by a four-year-old autistic child, which ended at the High Court yesterday six weeks after it began. The cost of funding the school is about €320,000 (£250,000) a year. Up to now, the parents have provided two-thirds of the funding.
The State has agreed to pay only 60 per cent of the estimated €1 million (£800,000) legal costs incurred by James and Nicola McNabb, of Moycullen, Co Galway, as a result of the proceedings taken for their son Colum.
That would have left the couple facing a legal bill of some €400,000 (£320,000), but their legal team - Mr Michael Cush SC, Mr John Gleeson SC and Mr Pearse Sreenan, instructed by Ernest J. Cantillon and Co, solicitors - are not seeking the remaining 40 per cent of the costs. The legal bill for the State team is estimated as at least another €1 million.
The settlement of the McNabb action involves the State fully funding the first school in the west of Ireland for autistic children based on the system of Applied Behaviour Analysis. The Abalta school at Knocknacarra, Galway city, caters for six pupils, including Colum, and has been operating since September 2001. It was established because parents were unhappy with the educational provision offered by the State .
It was claimed that over a one-year period from September 1999 to September 2000, the State had provided just 60 hours of "intervention" for Colum, including five hours of speech therapy and no occupational therapy. The State contended that the education offered was appropriate.
Mr Justice Lavan was told by Mr Michael Cush that the action had been settled. The settlement had been earlier ruled by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Finnegan.