The Government's decision to challenge a £40,000 award to the mother of an autistic child denied education by the State has been criticised by a group of Fianna Fail TDs, led by former minister Mr David Andrews.
Last October, the High Court awarded £200,000 to 23-year-old Mr Jamie Sinnott and £55,000 to his mother, Kathryn, both from Balllinhassig, Co Cork, to compensate them for the State's failure to provide free primary education for him.
The Government has warned that the judgment creates dangerous constitutional precedents, because it awards damages for the first time to a person for the suffering of another.
In addition, both the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, have warned that the ruling could allow people to sue the State about the quality of their primary education on spurious grounds.
The strong groundswell of opinion among Fianna Fail TDs against the move by the Minister emerged during a meeting of the FF Parliamentary Party on Wednesday.
Questioning the political wisdom of appealing the case, Dublin Central TD Ms Marian McGennis declared: "There is a phrase in Dublin, `Don't hit me with the child in my arms'. We are hitting a mother with the child in her arms."
Galway East TD Mr Michael Kitt said the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, had admitted he had made a mistake in the Brigid McCole case: "It's time that we looked at the humanitarian side of this.
"It seems very mean-spirited to be appealing a case like this. Every town in Ireland has an association that works for the disabled. They are all very unhappy about this. We have all got a lot of representations."
