Improved autistic facilities planned

Expanded facilities for autistic children are expected to be provided at Stillorgan, Co Dublin, following talks between official…

Expanded facilities for autistic children are expected to be provided at Stillorgan, Co Dublin, following talks between official bodies and an order of nuns.

But parents say they want to be consulted on the plans and they want their proposals to be taken into account.

Two Dublin schools for autistic children were relocated in 1995 to Beechpark in Stillorgan where the Daughters of the Cross has a school for deaf children.

The order is said to have become frustrated at what it saw as the failure by the Eastern Health Board to develop additional facilities for autistic children at the site.

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The school for deaf children is to close at the end of this month due to declining numbers. The lease for the two schools for autistic children will run out at the same time.

With the order considering selling some of its land, urgent talks were arranged with the Eastern Health Board, the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Education and Science.

The official bodies are understood to be proposing an expansion of the existing service to include diagnostic and physiotherapy facilities. The order is believed to be willing to continue to accommodate the schools on condition that it sees early action on the new facilities. However, parent representative Mr Colm Brazel complained of insufficient consultation. "We seem to be out of the equation on this," he said.