Autistic school issue not about funding, says Hanafin

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has responded to criticism from campaigners for autistic ABA schools by saying the issue has “never been about funding”, amid claims from Labour that it would cost just €5 million a year to run the facilities on a permanent basis.

In yesterday’s Irish Examiner it was revealed there are now 327 children — all aged under seven — on the waiting list for 12 Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) schools.

Campaign groups such as Irish Autism Action had said the growing waiting list showed a desire by parents for ABA schooling, although the department and the minister have expressed support for an “eclectic approach”, which comprises elements of ABA tuition but also other forms of autistic teaching management, including mainstream schools.

The 12 ABA schools have been operating on a pilot basis for years, while proposals have been forwarded to the department regarding another 12 ABA schools.

Responding to questions on the subject, Ms Hanafin said: “It has never been about funding, because we are already spending €820m this year on special needs.”

She stressed there had been no directives regarding funding from either the Department of Finance or elsewhere, and said of the existing ABA school programme: “They were a pilot project, the department funded them. There have been two or three meetings in recent months with Autism Action about them but the preferred option is that you would have this mix and that it would beapproached to the mainstream school.

“Having looked at it, at other places and other schools and other methods, we decided that the best way would be for special units but to have them attached to mainstream schools. It is not putting them in mainstream classes.”

However, the Labour Party was among those critical of the department’s failure to back the ABA schools.

Labour education spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan said her party in Government would fund the existing 12 units and grant them permanent status.

“Over the last decade these schools have survived exclusively on private funding from parents and through other initiatives,” she said.

“Their campaign to receive State funding and official endorsement from the Department of Education has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears.

“We estimate that the cost of this would amount to no more than €5m per year. This is an extremely small price to pay for giving autistic children the best possible start by providing education directly catered towards their needs.”