Many children are being forced to start school later than the recommended age because of a lack of places in the primary education system, the Labour Party claimed today.
The party's education spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said in many parts of the country parents are not given the chance to bring their children to school at the age of four because of insufficient space in their schools.
Labour Party education spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan
Ms O'Sullivan cited figures obtained in a reply by the Minister for Education to a Dáil Question last Thursday which show that in some areas like Cork county 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 Limerick City where the figure is 42 per cent. The national average figure is 55 per cent.
Ms O'Sullivan said: "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.
But a spokeswoman for the Department of Education told ireland.comthat the statutory compulsory age for attending school - contained in the Education Welfare Act 2000 - was between six and 16.
She said that Irish schoolchildren were on average younger than their EU counterparts when starting primary school.
But Ms O'Sullivan said: "In other countries, children start school when they are about six, but those countries unlike Ireland, have long established and well-resourced kindergarten and early-education systems.
She said: "There is a considerable body of research that indicates that this is the optimum age at which to begin, and all parents, regardless of where they live, should be given this choice."
"The learning opportunities lost by children whose entry to school is delayed can never be retrieved, and from that point of view, they are often the biggest losers in this.
"But parents also lose out directly, especially in cases where they are forced to fork out huge sums of money to cover an additional year or two of childcare costs."
