Family anger at autism funding cut

MICK McDONNELL says his 12-year-old could “talk the hind leg off a donkey,” plays football, is wonderfully affectionate and one of the top pupils in his school.

Nice things for any father to say about their son, but for Mick these words carry a pride and a sense of victory that only other parents of special needs children could understand.

Simon, his son, has autism and for him to gabber, excel in an academic setting and express love towards his family, is an incredible achievement.

This delight is tinged with anger, though, as the family largely accredit his development to the extra 10 hours of Department of Education-funded home tuition he has received to support his school learning — funding for which has been cut.

Through a mixture of the Applied Behavioural, Teach and PECS teaching methods, Simon has fully integrated into fifth class.

“When he started primary school, he couldn’t talk. He had a really short attention span. He couldn’t take direction. He couldn’t even sit down. The home tuition taught him all these skills by breaking every problem into a series of small tasks that he worked on,” says Mick, an electronic engineer.

However, for the past two years, the department has refused to fund the support and it is costing the family up to €22,000 a year. Needless to say they are accruing large levels of debt.

In September 2005, the Department of Education wrote to the McDonnells saying that the home tuition was “only an interim measure” and now that he has suitable schooling, they would not longer fund it.

“Simon has the potential to go to college when he’s 18. He has the potential to live independently but the only thing that is stopping him is his lack of social skills. For instance, he can’t understand changing facial expressions, signs of danger or slagging. He’s not at all streetwise,” says Mercedes, his mother. “He needs the home tuition to teach him this. A normal child learns these things from copying, a child with autism has to be taught all these things.”

The McDonnells, from Clontarf, sought a judicial review of the decision to stop the home funding. They lost the case, with the judge stating they hadn’t co-operated with a Special Education Needs Organiser in seeking a solution to the home funding issue. The department sought costs from the McDonnell family and they are now facing a potential legal bill of up to €250,000.

“Our senior counsel has warned us that the State will come after us. We are in deep trouble. We have a whole pile of debts and nothing like that money. They could take a judgment against our house and then if one of us was to die, as could happen, they could seek the costs and legally the deeds of the house wouldn’t be able to be changed into the other’s name,” said Mick.

“We are at the end of the tether now as tuition and paying off the State’s costs could theoretically cost us up to €52,000 a year. That is impossible for us. But this is all about Simon and his needs. The only thing that keeps us going is that he has achieved so much. We believe our son was a victim of his own success.”

A spokesman for the Department of Education said they could not comment on the matter as costs have yet to be calculated.