The Government should withdraw its "ill-considered" Supreme Court appeal in the Jamie Sinnott case, the Fine Gael justice spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, said yesterday. The appeal begins tomorrow.
Mr Shatter said that, contrary to misleading assurances which had been given previously by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, it was now the Government's clear intention to ask the Supreme Court to set aside the award of £55,000 damages made in favour of Ms Katherine Sinnott.
The Department of Education has maintained that the damages awarded by the High Court to Ms Sinnott are assured.
"Astonishingly, the Government is also asking the Supreme Court to rule that it has no constitutional obligation to provide basic primary education to children with special needs after they have reached 18 years of age, even in circumstances in which, throughout their childhood, the State totally failed to provide them with such education", Mr Shatter said in a statement.
In a reference to the McCole case, he said it was clear that Mr Ahern and the Government had utterly failed to grasp the lessons from litigation engaged in by the State in the past, which had "caused unnecessary distress and suffering to people the State itself had clearly and seriously wronged".
He continued: "Katherine Sinnott should be given the damages awarded her by the High Court. The education of those with special needs should be properly addressed, and taxpayers' money should not be wasted in challenging the rights of a mother and her autistic child through the Supreme Court."