Sir, - If the recent study of the incidence in autism in children in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow is correct, then the figure of 600 sufferers from autism in the state Dick Walsh (July 14th), could be closer to 6,000. such exponential growth cannot merely be explained by better diagnosis and greater awareness.
For those parents struggling to come to terms with the traumatic effects of a diagnosis, their difficulties are compounded by the outlook of health and education departments charged with implementing a Government policy, which finds it hard to look beyond the strictures of an annual budget, let alone embracing a vision for autistic children which hopes for more than eventual institutional care.
The concept of specific intensive intervention is looked at askance because of the comparatively significant cost. in such circumstances, an appeal to the Supreme Court by the State in the Sinnott case was inevitable.
As there will be a negligible political fall out from the Supreme Court judgment in the case, the comments of Dr Woods that he has been given "practically a blank cheque to better services" will be viewed with caution by parents and carers of those suffering from autism.
Kathryn Sinnott may have ultimately lost her case, but by her extraordinary determination and resilience, she has clearly illustrated that change is better effected through the courts, than by patiently waiting for a change in Government policy.
Parents cannot afford the luxury of debating the wisdom of unelected judges allegedly usurping the functions of the executive, while their children regress into an "unreachable private world". Much better to immediately take up the implicit invitation of Mr Justice Hardiman and see whether the provisions of the Equal Status Act, the Education (welfare) Act and the Education Act may prove more efficacious than the constitution in providing for the welfare and education of those suffering from autism. - Yours, etc.,
Brett Lockhart, Deramore Park, Belfast.