allegations as an "irresponsible piece of journalism". Ó Searcaigh was later investigated by Irish authorities to establish whether he should be prosecuted under the Sexual Offences Act for sleeping with boys in Nepal who would be considered under-age in Ireland. Hanafin was accused in February 2008 of being oblivious to the plight of parents of children with autism, and of taking an imperious view of their parents' situation, when she decided to engage in a 68-day court battle with two parents who were attempting to obtain appropriate education for their children through the applied behavior analysis (ABA) method. She and her department were accused of ignoring reality of autism education requirements. The mother, Yvonne Ui Cuanachain, said: "Well I would reject the Minister's position quite completely and I feel it's actually quite cynically misrepresentative of the situation on the ground. The Department of Education does not support ABA, it does not support ABA within the ABA schools and neither does it support ABA within the eclectic classes." Minister for Social and Family Affairs On 7 May 2008, Hanafin was appointed as Minister for Social and Family Affairs by new Taoiseach Brian Cowen. She abolished an independent agency, Combat Poverty, by subsuming it into the department. In late May 2009, a newspaper ran a story claiming Hanafin's office had used taxpayer-funded resources to promote Peter O'Brien in correspondence to voters in the ahead of the 2009 local elections. O'Brien was not elected at those local elections. Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport On 23 March 2010, Hanafin was moved from Social and Family Affairs to the Tourism, Culture and Sport portfolio. She appointed a Fianna Fáil councillor and friend of Brian Cowen to the board of the Irish Sports Council on her last full day as Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister. Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Following the resignation of Batt O'Keeffe in January 2011, Hanafin was also appointed as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation. 2011 general election On 22 January 2011, after the resignation of Brian Cowen, Hanafin put her name forward as a candidate for leader of Fianna Fáil. She was appointed Deputy Leader on 31 January 2011. At the 2011 general election she lost her Dáil seat to Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit. She briefly withdrew from public life, but in April 2011, the Fianna Fáil National Executive co-opted her as one of