Support groups for disabled people have launched an "appropriate education fund" for 14-year-old Lewis O'Carolan to help pay for a placement in an autism-specific unit in Wales.
Colm and Annette O'Carolan failed in a High Court bid to have the State fund a placement for their son at the Bangor Centre for Developmental Disabilities, which they say will meet their son's needs.
However, the Hope Project, founded by disability rights campaigner and MEP Kathy Sinnott, has launched a fund for Lewis which, it says, will help him with his "constitutionally guaranteed right to appropriate education".
Ms Sinnott said: "Lewis has had his constitutional rights trampled on by the State and now by the court. It is now up to us the people as ultimate guarantors of the Irish Constitution to fulfil its obligation to him."
A 13-week assessment and a year's education and therapy at Bangor would cost about £160,000. The fundraising campaign began to receive donations as early as yesterday.
The High Court ruled last week that proposals by the Health Service Executive and the Department of Education for a care and education unit in north Dublin for Lewis were "objectively adequate".
However, the boy's parents say the State's plans were based on a psychiatric model which would "destroy" their son's potential.
Outside the High Court yesterday, Ms O'Carolan said the legal costs awarded in favour of the family were some recognition of the family's struggle, but that securing appropriate education for their son was their main priority.
"The Woodlawn service is not an autism-specific service. It's based on a psychiatric model. We've been informed that we would have to medicate Lewis with anti-psychotic or anti-convulsive medication," she said.
"Lewis is not psychiatrically ill," his mother added. "He has a developmental disability, not a psychiatric illness. This is totally inappropriate for Lewis."
The Health Service Executive has defended the proposed facility at Woodlawn where, it says, Lewis would be cared for and educated along with a small number of intellectually disabled young people.
It says all major intellectual disability services in the country employ consultant psychiatrists with a special interest in intellectual disability and multidisciplinary support teams.
The Lewis O'Carolan Appropriate Education Fund has been established at a branch of the Bank of Ireland in Carrigaline, Co Cork. The account details are: account number 93863613, sort code: 90-29-79