Fergus Finlay: Boys deprived of education as law left to languish on shelf for 17 years

Kyle Milne with his mother Gillian, who is pleading to be heard to get supports for Kyle and his twin brother who both have autism.

There was a famous case about a boy called Jamie Sinnott, who had autism. The High Court had decided that the State, through neglect, had deprived Jamie of education and it awarded extensive damages to him and his mother because of the loss of a profound constitutional right.

However, it gets worse Taoiseach. Last Wednesday, when you were dealing with this issue in the Dáil and the travesty of the treatment of Kyle and Ryan, you referred to the act. You said: “The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, Epsen, Act needs to be reviewed.”