PARENTS of children with special needs are traditionally a silent force but throughout Cork they are vowing to make themselves heard through the ballot box.

PARENTS of over 100 children with autism have been informed by schools this week that their teaching assistance hours are being cut — on the orders of the National Council for Special Education.

HUNDREDS of angry parents are planning to picket the Government’s Cabinet meeting in Cork this morning as paediatric services for thousands of special needs children face collapse.

A school is seeing students’ concentration levels rise by supplying them the most important meal of the day. Claire O’Sullivan reports.

A UNIT for autistic children is in danger of closing just six months after it opened because the Department of Education has failed to sanction a permanent teaching post.

PARENTS of children with disabilities may be forced to quit their jobs, because of cutbacks in school transport assistance, a campaign group said last night.

I WRITE with a sense of amusement and anger at the recent letter from Billy Kelleher, deputy government chief whip (Irish Examiner, Dec 16).

DISABILITY groups have demanded the resignation of Education Minister Noel Dempsey over his plan to reallocate special needs assistants.

LAWS to improve education for people with disabilities are useless without the proper staffing, funding and other resources, TDs and Senators were told yesterday.

A COMMITTEE dedicated to monitoring Government activities in relation to the disabled has been set up by Fine Gael.

AUTISTIC children who took part in a project to improve learning skills were ready for mainstream school on completion of the programme, according to its overseers.

PARENTS of hundreds of severely disabled children struggling to meet care costs are to have their Government aid reduced in the latest Department of Health cutbacks.