Parents at a special school for autistic children in Co Wicklow have been told that services for some children at the facility will cease by the end of next month due to funding shortages.
The acting chief executive officer of the Barnacoyle pre-school managing authority, Harry Cullen, told parents of nine children last week that the school had not received a response from the Department of Education seeking a sanction for additional staff in May last year.
As a result, he said the school would be forced to discontinue its services to these children by March 31st unless additional funding was forthcoming.
"We've been delivering services to these children from our own resources in the meantime and that has stretched us to an unacceptable limit," he said.
"We had to provide services to these children due to the absolute urgency of responding to their needs at an early age. Not providing these services would have been irresponsible."
However, a spokeswoman for Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said officials had met representatives from the school recently and there had been no indication it would close its autism services.
"Following this meeting a comprehensive letter was issued to Mr Cullen outlining the department's and the National Council for Special Education's (NCSE) position on the various matters discussed at the meeting. To date no response to the department's letter has been received from Mr Cullen," a department spokeswoman said.
These matters are understood to relate to corporate governance issues which, Mr Cullen said, were being dealt with according to an agreed timetable.
In the meantime, parents are campaigning to secure department funding to keep the service open for their nine children by lobbying TDs and Ministers and distributing leaflets.
There are 16 children aged between two and six at the pre-school service. It provides an intensive and structured form of education known as applied behaviour analysis, which parents say has brought about positive changes in the condition of their children.
