Irish Daily Mail

‘Taoiseach’s apology is all too little, too late’ for us

Twins with autism in battle for school places ‘failed by State’

- By Helen Bruce helen.bruce@dailymail.ie

AN apology from the Taoiseach to the family of twin boys with autism, who have been battling in vain for six years to secure appropriat­e school places, has been dismissed by their mother as ‘too little, too late’.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dail yesterday that the State had failed the Milne family.

But Gillian Milne, the mother of 11-year-old brothers Kyle and Ryan, said they needed a school place more than an apology.

‘If I’m honest, it’s too little, too late,; she said. ‘We are gutted as a family at what’s happened to the twins. It was only the Taoiseach himself who brought this up in the Dáil in 2019, to say it wasn’t good enough and that it was a situation that needed to be dealt with.

‘And now, three years later, he himself has given us a State

‘He can’t give us back those years’

apology. It’s just too late. Ryan and Kyle are 11 now. He can’t give us back those six years that they should have been in school. They are now coming up to nearly secondary school age.’

She said the boys just wanted to be like any other child, and have what any other child had, including friends with whom to enjoy major life events, like Communions and Confirmati­ons.

Ms Milne told RTÉ Drivetime that Josepha Madigan, Junior Minister for Special Education and Inclusion, had called yesterday morning, after the issue was aired on PrimeTime, to ask to meet the family – but not to provide a place.

‘It would mean more for us as parents if they put their efforts into doing that [finding a place] for Ryan and Kyle, and for other children, and to not let any other family go through what we have gone through. You can make all the apologies you want, but no-one knows what goes on behind closed doors,’ she said.

She said her husband Darren had no choice but to give up his job as a bus driver to help care for the boys. She said the family’s home in north Dublin had been repossesse­d, and they are now tenants of the iCare Housing Project.

As well as having autism, the boys have ADHD, sensory processing disorder, global developmen­tal delay and OCD, and require constant care.

They are also both non-verbal with low immunity, meaning they pick up regular infections. Words they had picked up have been lost, due to a lack of support services in recent years.

Mr Martin told the Dáil that he had watched the programme detailing the family’s struggle.

He said: ‘It’s not good enough. The State has failed the Milne family, and Ryan and Kyle, in terms of providing a proper comprehens­ive education for those children that would be appropriat­e to their complex needs.

‘They have applied to two schools and been refused. This morning I spoke to the Minister, Josepha Madigan, I spoke to the new recently appointed CEO of the National Council for Special Education, I spoke to the assistant secretary in the Department of Education. All are possessed with the need that this doesn’t happen again.’

He said that in the last two years there had been a significan­t expansion of special needs places, but also three new special schools created for the first time in a decade – in Cork and in Dublin.

He continued: ‘I apologise to the Milne family on behalf of the Government because it simply isn’t good enough. I don’t stand over this. I think there is an absence of proactivit­y in the system.’

He said the Minister was working on expanding capacity within existing special schools and creating new schools.

‘I also think we do need stronger legislatio­n. No longer can it be an option for schools to say we are not taking in children with special needs.’ He said that both the Education Act and the School Admission Act needed review, adding: ‘There is a collective responsibi­lity on all schools to take children with special needs.’

 ?? ?? Appealing for help for their family: Gillian and Darren Milne; Darren with twins Ryan and Kyle
Appealing for help for their family: Gillian and Darren Milne; Darren with twins Ryan and Kyle
 ?? ?? Six-year battle: Gillian and Ryan
Six-year battle: Gillian and Ryan

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