Only eight out of the 58 specialist classes for children with a speech or language disorder are in Dublin, according to Fine Gael's Dublin spokesman and the party's leader in the Seanad, Senator Brian Hayes.
"The fact that there are only eight of these classes operating in Dublin is appalling and leaves parents and children with speech difficulties severely disadvantaged," Mr Hayes said yesterday.
"This insufficient supply has been a problem for many years and is reaching crisis point with too many children and their parents left waiting for help.
"It's also clear that a child has a much better chance of obtaining support in areas outside of Dublin. Despite having a far larger population, Dublin has the same number of specialist classes as Cork," he said.
Mr Hayes said parents should be given a real choice in relation to their child's education. If speech and language problems develop early on, the child should be given specific help in a mainstream setting or in a specialist class.
"Currently that choice isn't there for children in Dublin as only eight of the 58 classes nationally are based in the Dublin area, despite the fact that a third of the population live in Dublin.
"There is a serious lack of communication between the health and education services for children with special needs in this country. Parents and local school management find it impossible to find out who is responsible for delivering additional support.
"Clearly there is a turf war going on within the Department of Education. After nine years in office, the current Government has a brass neck in standing over their pathetic record in this area," he said.
Labour's Jan O'Sullivan has maintained that the traditional position where children started school at four years of age is becoming a thing of the past in many areas.
She made her comments in response to a reply by the Minister for Education to a recent Dáil Question.
"There is a direct link between the situation where families are being denied the opportunity to send their four year olds to school and the shortage of capacity in our primary school system.
"Ideally all children should be given the chance to start school when they are between four and four and a half," she said.
Ms O'Sullivan added that in many parts of the country parents were simply not given the chance to bring their children to school at that age, and instead were forced to wait until they are five or even six.
"This problem is particularly stark in areas like Cork county where over two thirds of all junior infants are five or older on the first day of school. This compares to Waterford city where just 38 per cent of children are over five and Monaghan where the figure is 43 per cent. The average figure is 55 per cent.
"Commuter belt counties are also badly affected. The shortage of schools in the burgeoning areas of Kildare are well documented and 62 per cent of junior infants are over five in the county.
"Meanwhile in Meath where the Laytown debacle is still fresh in our memories, the figure is 60 per cent," she said.
