Autistic children and their parents have been neglected by successive Irish governments, which should provide them with appropriate services.

One-third of families that have a child with autism have fallen into debt in the past year due to the condition.

Parents breaking down under the strain of ‘educational apartheid’, writes Michael Clifford.

This society has a long and grim history of exclusion, especially around children who, for whatever reason, arrive among us by a route less travelled, sometimes with characteristics that might categorise them in a challenging way.

Actress and playwright Jody O’Neill remembers being four years of age and copying everything her best friend did. It was a survival strategy for O’Neill, who was diagnosed with autism last year at the age of 39.

Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone is said to be “mortified and humiliated” after she described Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as “autistic” to a journalist.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he accepts Catherine Noone’s apology for suggesting he was autistic but ruled out any sanctions for the Fine Gael senator.

Helen O’Callaghan looks at the autism-friendly National Gallery

It's lights, camera, action for a group of young Cork students who are preparing to debut their Christmas production on the big screen of their local cinema.

Some of the biggest retail names in Cork City centre have united to provide a sensory-friendly shopping hour.

“She keeps Conor safe,” his mother Trish said. "Before Quelda, Conor would bolt in a split second. He’d run towards water or he’d run into traffic.

Dublin Airport has opened a purpose-built Sensory Room for passengers with autism, dementia, cognitive impairment or other special needs.

Specialist services are needed for children and teenagers with autism. It should encompass other conditions that come with it, writes Victoria White

Halloween is supposed to be an enjoyable time for everyone, but for children with autism it can be very frightening.

The president of the High Court has said the parents of a boy with autism and other disorders who has exhibited violent behaviour had been left in “a heart-breaking situation” for months with little apparent support from the Child and Family Agency.

A young boy with autism who was delighted when his service Dog won the national Nose of Tralee award is now battling an aggressive cancer in hospital.

Channel 4’s Alan Gardner reveals he has heart failure and says he wants to focus on his health not his Asperger’s. Áilín Quinlan meets him in Clonakilty

Human nature decrees that for every weakness, there is an individual, a profession, or one entity or another ready to exploit the situation.

A Meath mother waves her son off on the school bus each morning and then has to jump into the car to drive his twin 20kms to the same school.

An outpouring of public generosity led to the delivery by An Post of thousands of cards to Barry Connolly from all over the country and as far away as the UK, Dubai and Australia.

The mum of a young man with autism, who she was told to lock in a room and forget about as a baby, is now appealing to the public to send him cards on his 30th birthday later this week.

A man who is a full-time carer for his younger brother has made an emotional appeal for a place in residential care for his sibling.

Two ads promising a cure for autism have been found to be in breach of advertising standards.

At both primary and secondary level, school places for special needs children are at a premium and parents are under huge pressure with the lack of supports, writes Noel Baker

The author of an article which featured in a Junior Cert exam yesterday without her knowledge has received death threats.

Awareness-training plays vital role, says Helen O’Callaghan

Compared with other children her age, Sophie McGoldrick is classed as non-verbal but her smile when she attends her pre-school says everything.

Five years after the completion of a €1.3m residential centre for adults with autism, the Co Kerry facility remains unoccupied.