GAVAN REILLY: Special education needs special response

In a funny way – though not because of the substance of the story – it’s been good to see attention drawn in the last week to the calamitous setup of education in Ireland for children with autism.

Josepha Madigan’s short-lived proposal of ‘special education centres’ was rightly dismissed by parents who know temporary solutions are rarely temporary. Direct Provision was temporary when set up in 2000. People genuinely thought we’d long be back taking staycations at Mosney by now.

Madigan says she’s taking steps no previous minister did, by developing forecasting so that the system knows how many children it must cater to in future. This sounds good in principle but will have problems in practice: if it’s a census of children already classified as autistic, it’s worthless, given how long it takes to receive a diagnosis in the first place.

The HSE waiting list for an ‘assessment of need’ – without which you can’t access therapies – is an average of 17 months.

That delay means most of the State supports for autistic children are already closed off by the time of a diagnosis. To get a child into an ASD class in September you’ll need to have applied by the previous November – a window you’ll easily miss if you’re still awaiting a HSE assessment of your child’s needs.

You’d absolutely miss the chance to get them into an Early Intervention Unit (a specialised form of pre-school), for which you’d have to apply aged two.

But then again, that assistance is mostly unavailable in Meath anyway. There’s only two Early Intervention Units, with a total capacity of 12 pupils, and the National Council for Special Education says there isn’t a single ASD class in any – any! – school in Meath at all. A system which delays a diagnosis, and offers no support after it, is barely worthy of the name.