The Minister for Education has announced a range of measures to provide for the educational needs of autistic children. This follows the case of Jamie Sinnott, the man at the centre of the High Court case last week. Dr Michael Woods said that the case highlighted the failure of the State to provide education for these children and he proposed to remedy that failure. However there are no immediate plans to extend the new measures to groups of other special needs children
At Question Time this afternoon the Minister said that he had authorised an immediate payment to put tuition in place. He said the case had highlighted the failure of the State to provide for the education of these children and he proposed to remedy that. Dr Woods announced the introduction of a nationwide pre-school service for autistic children from the age of three years, a doubling of the supports for this group and a programme of teacher training for those dealing with these children. He also said the school year for classes with autistic children will in future extend through July.
The Minister said that while the question of appealing the court judgement in the Sinnott case was being considered by the Attorney General and by his own Department, the reality was that he was going ahead with remedies for the deficiencies identified by the judgement.
