Madam, - It was very sad to read the report in your edition of June 16th about Lewis O'Carolan, the 12-year-old autistic boy. The High Court has decided that a facility at Woodlawn, Lusk, Co Dublin was adequate to meet his requirements. This facility has no experience - judging by the report - in dealing with autistic children and is obviously totally unsuitable.
The judge may be technically correct in his ruling, though I wonder what ever happened to the legal concept of "what a reasonable person would consider appropriate". I don't think any reasonable person would consider Woodlawn to be appropriate or even adequate.
It is just incredible to me that after a number of years of the Celtic Tiger we still consider providing for autistic and disabled children to be such a low priority. The attitude seems to be that if (the State) says "No" often enough perhaps they will just go away.
If the Government was doing its job there would be special schools with skilled and experienced teachers to teach autistic children. Yes, it would cost a lot of money, but would it not be worth it? - Yours, etc,
DENIS COSTELLO, Glendown Grove, Dublin 6 W.