The shocking story of the life being lived by Lewis O'Carolan and his parents in their small terraced home in Phibsboro, Dublin, is revealed in the Weekend Review section of this newspaper today. Lewis is a 14-year-old boy who is suffering from autism. He used to be able to speak but he can't any more. He used to be in a school for special needs and autistic children but his parents took him out because of his deteriorating behaviour about 18 months ago. Now he is trapped in a lonely and destructive world where the only outlet for his frustration is to break all things around him.
Lewis's parents have decided to go public today because they are at their wits' end. They used to work but they are devoting themselves to minding him at home now. He has no outreach services, no education and no social worker. The State is only obliged to provide "educational services" for him for four more years until he is 18 and then, his parents believe, their autistic son will spend the rest of his days "on medication, sitting in a plastic chair, in a psychiatric hospital".
The story of Lewis O'Carolan is shameful. The 14-year-old cannot get applied behaviour analysis, a form of one-to-one tuition within the education system. He can get a place in a special school for children with learning difficulties and challenging behaviour in England but the health board has to fund it. Out of sheer exasperation, his parents have decided to pursue a case in the High Court to compel the State to provide appropriate education for Lewis before he reaches the age of 18 years.
By any standards, the plight in which the O'Carolan family find themselves is horrifying, at both a human and political level. And they are not alone. The statistics show that one-in-500 families are affected by autism. And some 110 cases are being taken by parents claiming that their children's rights are being infringed by a similar lack of access to appropriate education also.
The way that Lewis's family has to cope with their difficulties in a post-Celtic Tiger Ireland tells us much about our moral and community values today. We live in one of the wealthiest and most expensive capitals in the world. We have one of the lowest personal tax rates and highest rates of employment. There is nearly €2 billion in the kitty for the Budget. But we are self-interested. The desperation which must have driven his parents to publicise Lewis's story tells us something about the decline in community values.
It is an indictment of modern Ireland that Lewis's parents have to bear their burden alone. Have our values been lost to the euro?