'Penny-pinching' claim in autism case

The mother of a child with high functioning autism yesterday accused the Department of Education of "penny-pinching" behaviour towards her son.

However, because of the implications of the Supreme Court decision in the Sinnott case, Ms Noreen Meehan, a qualified childcare worker, of Rochestown Rise, Rochestown, Cork, told the High Court she was reluctantly accepting an offer from the Department to settle her son's legal action aimed at securing appropriate education.

After day-long negotiations between lawyers for the State and the parents of John Meehan (5), Mr John Gleeson SC, for the Meehans, asked Mr Justice O Caoimh to approve a settlement which, counsel said, he was recommending because there were risks in proceeding in light of the case and of the Sinnott decision. The Meehan's had sought for the Department to provide funding of £88,000 to meet the child's educational needs up to February 2003. The Department offer was to pay £76,000.

Under the settlement, the State has agreed to pay £50,000 which will go towards the costs of a specialised home-based tuition programme up to February 2003; to appoint a special needs assistant on a part-time basis to assist the child in school up to February 2003; and to sanction the appointment of a special resource teacher to provide five hours teaching weekly for the child at school up to February 2003. It will also pay the costs of the legal action.