This article is from page 12 of the 2008-05-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
CLARE’S lack of an Applied Behav- ioral Analysis (ABA) facility prompt- ed a bout of political mud slinging at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council.
The meeting descended into a inter- party slagging match with a number of Fine Gael councillors applying pressure to Brian Meaney (GP) over his party’s action on the ABA issue while in government.
While putting forward the motion,
Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) accused the Green Party of turning it’s back on the provision of ABA once it got into Oo
“The day of treating children who suffer from autism as second class citizens should be long gone,’ he said.
“I believe that Minister Gormley gave commitment when he was in Clare before the election that if he ever got into government that the 1s- sue of ABA schools would be on the agenda.”
Responding to the allegations, Cllr Meaney said that the issue should not be treated as “a political football”.
“The Green Party are quite com- mitted to ensuring an extension of the 12 school pilot in the west of the country. The problem with this was the election, with the other parties who are now languishing out of pow- er and in the back benches.
‘The position of the Green Party in relation to ABA doesn’t need to be restated. Early intervention is vital in terms of dealing with autism. ABA is
a proven method of doing this and I am not going to take comments, such as that one from Cllr Murphy, lying ele) a0 ae
The original motion was put for- ward by Cllrs Tony Mulcahy, Martin Conway and Murphy, and highlight- ed that of the 12 ABA facilities in Ireland, only one, located in Galway, is outside the Pale.
“IT would appeal to the new Minis- ter for Education to turn a new leaf and rise to the challenge of this sort of essential education,” said Cllr CONE
“When it comes to education and the opportunity of giving a young person the opportunity for a full edu- cation we have to rise to it. I was very disturbed last week when I was ap- proached by a young mother in En- nistymon who is on a waiting list to get into the school in Inagh.
“She could not be guaranteed a place because of the lack of funding that that school enjoys. We cannot drag our feet on this.”
Cllr Mulcahy called for more fund- ing to be provided.
‘There are 12 of these institutes in Ireland and only one of them is to the west of the Shannon. It should be conveyed the importance of the ABA school in County Clare,” he said. “It is critical that funding is provided and funded is provided to help these young children in County Clare.”