A health board has refused to send a 14-year-old autistic boy with severe behavioural problems abroad for treatment because it insists it can provide an appropriate service for him.
Lewis O'Carolan has been living at home with his parents in Phibsboro, Dublin, for two years without any education or respite services since his parents withdrew him from St Paul's special school in Beaumont.
The parents said the school did not provide appropriate education for their son and claimed that his behaviour had deteriorated while attending the school. They want him to attend a centre specialising in autism in Bangor, Wales, which has offered them a 13-week residential assessment placement.
The Department of Education and the Health Service Executive (Northern Area) have rejected the claims regarding St Paul's and say that a range of education and therapy is available.
The boy's parents are taking proceedings against the State seeking appropriate education and support for their son.
Affidavits filed in the High Court show that the department and the HSE have proposed a placement for the boy in Dublin.
Department officials have expressed concern about the Bangor centre and say it would not provide benefits justifying the "drastic upheaval" for the boy and his family. They believe that St Paul's is an appropriate placement for him and say the proposal for a placement at Blake's Cross in Dublin goes "beyond what might reasonably be regarded as being required in accordance with their [ the department's] constitutional or statutory obligations".
However, the O'Carolans have rejected the Blake's Cross placement on the basis of expert advice that it would not provide appropriate education for their son. Affidavits show that professionals from the Bangor Centre for Development Disabilities visited the O'Carolans in January and subsequently offered the 13-week placement.
At the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice McMenamin said that a full plenary hearing must be held on the boy's future care as a matter of urgency. He ordered both parties to file pleadings within two weeks, when a date for a plenary hearing will be set.