Autistic boy's parents say costs threaten home
Tuesday, 29 January 2008 22:08
The parents of a seven-year-old autistic boy say they face losing their Co Wicklow home after they lost their High Court challenge to force the State to pay for their son's education.
Yvonne and Cian Ó Cuanacháin lost their case to force the State to provide Applied Behavioural Analaysis or ABA tuition for their son, Seán, and today the court decided all sides must pay their own costs.
Overall costs in the case are estimated at €5m.
Mr Justice Michael Peart ruled the Department of Education, the HSE and the Ó Cuanacháins must cover their own costs.
Speaking after the judgment, Seán's parents said aside from their solicitor's fees, counsel fees would leave them facing a 'desperate future'. Their house, they said, was their only asset and they could now lose it.
The family claims to have spent tens of thousands of euro already trying to make up the shortfall in Seán's education with private tuition.
They say the Department of Education had used their case to set a precedent and not extend ABA tuition to more schools.
150 other families in a similar position were awaiting the outcome of the original trial before considering taking their own cases.
Neither the Department of Education or the HSE sought costs but they opposed costs being awarded against them.
The bill facing the State and HSE arising from the action is estimated at more than €2m.
A Department of Education spokesperson would make no comment on the outcome of today's proceedings.
- Nine News: Niamh Nolan reports on the costs ruling in the failed High Court challenge by the parents of an autistic boy seeking to force the State to pay for his education
- Nine News: Martina Fitzgerald reports on the case's wider implications for the education of other autistic children in the country
- Six One News: Niamh Nolan reports on today's costs ruling after a failed High Court challenge to force the State to pay for an autistic child's education
