Fianna Fáil TDs are to debate the Department of Education's attitude towards the education of autistic children at a parliamentary party meeting tonight. Minister for Education Mary Hanafin was involved in sharp exchanges with Fine Gael on the issue again last night.
Despite the private unhappiness of some Fianna Fáil TDs at Ms Hanafin's handling of the controversy, a confrontation is thought unlikely for now.
Instead, the parliamentary party is expected to call for a report on the use and usefulness of one-to-one applied behavioural analysis.
Last night Ms Hanafin accused Fine Gael of "deeply cynical tactics" because it had, she said, "deliberately" scheduled last week's Dáil debate on autism when they knew she had to attend the Ireland-US Council in the United States.
"If Fine Gael had genuinely wanted me to be able to attend the full debate, they would not have deliberately scheduled it for a time when they knew I would be away. They know exactly how important the Ireland-US Council is, as their own leader, Mr Kenny, travelled to New York to address a lunch event of the council in 2006," she said.
She said she told Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes of her travel plans two days before he tabled the party's private members motion. "I told Deputy Hayes that I was anxious to have the opportunity to discuss autism provision in the Dáil and requested that the debate merely be postponed.
Mr Hayes responded sharply later last night: "Mary Hanafin is more interested in throwing mud than she is in meeting the needs of parents with autistic children."
