Michael (not his real name) has been in school for a total of only three months since he was eight years old. He will turn 12 in May. He has no social skills, and is unable to interact with his peers, or unfamiliar adults. Soon, he will be expected to go to secondary school. His foster parents, Paul and Annette Barry, have tried and failed to find a school that will enrol him. They believe their only remaining option now is to sue the state.

"He needs help, and we need help. We are very seriously considering going to court now, because we have been left with no other choice, " Paul Barry told the Sunday Tribune. "We're just looking for a good solicitor who will be willing to take on Michael's case. If we don't roar and shout, no one will. Michael doesn't have anyone else."

The Barrys decided to foster Michael when he was four years old. He was their first foster child. Though they were unaware of it at the time, Michael had had seven different foster families before he was given to them.

"He was thrown all over the place, " said Annette. "One particular family would go on holidays without him, and just give him to someone else to be minded. He didn't know what a holiday was. You don't think that this sort of thing could happen now. But because he's in the system, no one cares."

Before they fostered him, the Barrys were told that Michael was troubled. This became evident as soon as he was enrolled in their local primary school, St Kevin's in Finglas. "He never settled there, " said Annette. "He would just get up and walk out of the school. At one point, he hit the principal, and he threw a chair at one of the teachers. He was afraid of nobody. He doesn't understand humour. If one kid teases him, he won't tease them back, he'll lash out. He's on the defensive all the time."

Michael was brought to the Castleknock Clinic, which specialises in behavioural disorders, to be assessed. Nothing came of it. The Barrys then brought him to another clinic in Downpatrick, Co Down. There, he was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder and Attachment Disorder. The first problem meant Michael was under-responsive to touch, and therefore craved physical contact. The second problem meant he was deeply insecure and found it extremely difficult to trust anyone.

The diagnoses made sense to the Barrys, who had noticed that Michael had formed an extreme attachment to them. "It got to the stage where we couldn't really go outside the door, and it's still like that, " said Paul. "We have to be around all the time. He looks for hugs and kisses every few minutes. We put him to bed, and he gets up throughout the night, making sure we're still here."

For four years, Michael stayed in St Kevin's. For a significant portion of that time, he was at home, suspended. "The school wasn't able to cope with him, because he needed more specialised help, " said Annette. "They just didn't have the resources to deal with him, so when he was eight, we had to look for a special needs school."

It was another year-and-a-half before Michael was accepted into Scoil Casa Catriona in Cabra, a school for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. When he was finally enrolled, he was attending the school for only two hours a day.

Shortly after arriving at Casa Catriona, Michael had a fight with one of the other students, and was suspended for a week. He had been in the school for a month when Annette got a phone call from one of the teachers.

"He had tried to climb out of a window, and they called me to come in, " she said. "I walked into the classroom and found four teachers holding him down by his arms and legs and he was screaming for them to let him go. The sweat was pouring off him. His hair was wet with it. We walked out of the school, and they refused to take him back."

It was recommended that Michael be enrolled in the Phoenix Park School for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. His name was put in the roll book, but there was a barrier of bureaucracy to get through before he could attend. Eighteen months after leaving Casa Catriona, he attended the new school . . . for just two hours a day.

"It was while he was in the Phoenix Park that he was finally diagnosed with ADHD, " said Annette. "His teacher there was very good with him, and he really had a good relationship with her. Then, two months after he started there, he was left in the mainstream classroom without his special-needs teacher, and he got in a fight with another child. The school is now refusing to take him back for health and safety reasons.

And now we have nowhere else to go."

Michael's last day at school was in February. It is highly unlikely he will be accepted to any school before the end of this school year. The Barrys are seriously concerned. "He's getting older, he's getting stronger, and it's a whole new ballgame now, " said Paul. "The average teenager is difficult to handle. What chance do we have with Michael?

We need help and he needs help, but no one wants to know. He's in the system. No-one cares."