The State will pay the money awarded to Mr Jamie Sinnott and his mother, Kathryn, despite the Supreme Court ruling against them yesterday.
The State successfully argued that the High Court ruling in favour of the autistic man had breached the principle of the separation of powers between the judiciary and the Oireachtas by actually telling the Government what education service to provide.
The Supreme Court upheld an appeal by the State against a High Court ruling that it was obliged to provide education to Mr Sinnott, a 23-year-old autistic man, for as long as he could benefit from it. Last October the High Court awarded him £225,000, and Mrs Sinnott £55,000. It also awarded them their costs.
When it appealed the ruling the State undertook to pay all legal costs, including those of the appeal.
The Minister for Education, Mr Woods, also stressed yesterday that the State was going to improve the care of autistic children and adults. "I have been given practically a blank cheque to better services," he said.
But when she emerged from the Four Courts yesterday Mrs Sinnott embraced one of the dozens of parents of autistic children present in court, and said: "It's a bad day for our kids, isn't it?"
The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, was alone in agreeing with the High Court that the State was obliged "to provide free primary education for the plaintiff appropriate to his needs for as long as he is capable of benefiting from same".