Location of autism facility 'a folly'

FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will have an unlikely ally in a debate on uniting Ireland tonight. Former Ulster Unionist Party MP Ken Maginnis is set to side with Mr Ahern when Trinity College Dublin’s Historical Society discusses the motion that “this house would re-unite Ireland”.

Lord Maginnis of Drumglass will be advocating increased North-South co-operation on the issue of autism. “Obviously this old unionist isn’t really going to call for a united Ireland, but I am calling for a united approach to helping those with autism and their families,” he said.

Mr Ahern will be receiving the society’s gold medal for “outstanding contribution to public discourse” at the event.

Lord Maginnis is to use the occasion to criticise the south Armagh location of the cross-Border facility, the Middletown Centre for Autism. It opened in April 2007 but building works will not be completed until 2010.

The North’s Deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, was said to be the driving force behind the establishment of the centre in Middletown. It aims to offer autism research, assessment, training and support.

But Lord Maginnis said: “How many first-class academics are going to abandon Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Galway or Londonderry universities for a post in Middletown?

“How many students, teachers and health visitors are likely to arrive from the Ring of Kerry, let alone Strabane or Ballinamallard?”

He also argued that the Middletown centre would not have the capacity to deal with the growing number of new cases of autism diagnosed every year.

He claimed there would be 450 new cases in the Republic and 200 in the North each year, while more than twice that number of children would need to be assessed.

The costs of the centre are being split between the Republic and the North. Lord Maginnis said: “With huge capital costs and unjustifiable revenue funding required, the Republic should be reassessing such a folly.”