Autism group formed to lobby on Sinnott issues

About 1,000 people attended a meeting in Dublin last night called to form a group to lobby the Government on issues raised by last week's Supreme Court judgment in the Sinnott case.

The group, which last night chose the name Irish Autism Alliance, demanded that the Oireachtas be recalled to focus on the ramifications of the judgment. Last Thursday the court overturned a High Court ruling that the State was obliged to provide a primary education for Mr Jamie Sinnott (23), an autistic man, as long as he could benefit from it.

Ms Kathryn Sinnott, Mr Sinnott's mother, said at last night's meeting that the ruling had left her "reeling".

Describing the judgment as a "carefully considered dismissal" of disabled people's rights, she called for a change to Article 42.4 of the Constitution which deals with rights to education. It should, she said, provide "a free primary education to all persons appropriate to their needs and irrespective of their chronological age".

There were inconsistencies in the courts' and the Constitution's definition of childhood. While her son was regarded as an intellectual child and not eligible to hold office or to vote, he was regarded chronologically as an adult and, according to the Supreme Court, ineligible for a primary education. He was therefore, she said, "outside the Constitution".

Among those who addressed the meeting, which came about as a result of a radio discussion on the case on Today FM's The Last Word, was Senator Joe O'Toole, general secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation.

He said "very clear objectives" should be established by the newly formed IAA, and called on legal experts among its members to draft a bill of rights for the disabled.

Mr Deirdre Carroll, general secretary of the National Association of Mental Handicapped in Ireland, said Ireland would have to face "the indignity of having its knuckles rapped by the international community" if the issues raised by the judgment were not addressed.

The Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole, who chaired the meeting, said the demands of those at the meeting were "not outrageous"

A spokesman for the Department of Education said the Minister, Dr Woods, took very seriously his responsibilities in relation to the provision of services for autistic children and adults. A spokeswoman for the Government said there were no plans for it to reconvene to discuss the Sinnott judgment.