Autism case should go to Supreme Court

THE O’Cuanacháin High Court judgement is a setback for my middle child, Dara (3) and the few hundred other autistic small children whose educational future could be brighter with the Advanced Behavioural Analysis (ABA) educational model.

The ‘eclectic’ alternative is a piecemeal of over-stretched resource teachers who mainly have no additional training, autonomous primary schools nervous of releasing empty classrooms and frequently distressed autistic children adrift without the one-to-one support that is the norm in the US.

ABA is another innovation from North America that impacts on an autistic childhood in the same way that American IT innovation has impacted on us all in recent years.

I hope the O’Cuanacháin’s have the heart to take this matter to the Supreme Court as, arguably, there are issues in this case of ‘public importance’.

The only right a child appears to have in our constitution is a right to a primary school education.

For a child with this complex condition, that right can only be realised through the proven ABA method.

In the ‘Baby Anne’ case, Judge Hardiman referred to our constitution preferring parents over third parties in the ‘nurturing’ of the child.

Our Supreme Court therefore may very well understand the O’Cuanacháins’ need to bring this matter before them in the context of ‘nurturing’ their son, Seán.

Each political party could make an election commitment to guarantee any small child with this devastating diagnosis 30 hours weekly ABA in their primary school years.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has said the exchequer is so inundated with revenues it does not need stamp duty.

However, some of our most vulnerable, smaller citizens will know substantially greater daily happiness if a portion of stamp duty was ringfenced for one-to-one special needs tuition via ABA. Yvonne O’Cuannacháin knows what she is talking about when she stated after the High Court ruling that the current ‘eclectic’ patchwork provision will ‘damage’ her six-year-old son.

A lot has been done in this area within our brash, prosperous society — but there surely is more to do?

Paul Moran

19 Kingston Park

Ballinteer

Dublin 16