More than 1,000 extra teachers are needed for primary-school children with special needs, the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) has claimed.
This follows a written Dáil reply by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, in which he revealed that more than 6,000 applications for special education resources were awaiting a decision by his Department.
Addressing an INTO conference on the theme of special educational needs in Croke Park,Dublin, the general secretary of the INTO, Mr John Carr, said he believed special education was "in crisis".
This was because of inadequate staffing levels and ineffective procedures to allocate teachers to pupils.
"Getting resources depends on assessments and centralised approval by the Department of Education and Science," he said.
"The system clearly favours those with the financial means to buy private assessments, and penalises children in disadvantaged areas unable to access psychological assessments."
He said more than 2,000 teachers were in primary schools providing extra teaching for special-needs pupils.
The INTO had, he said, met the Department of Education to propose a weighted model of provision, involving the allocation of teaching resources to schools on a needs basis. However, making such a system work would depend on the provision of adequate resources.
Replying to a question from Mr Bernard Durkan of Fine Gael recently, Mr Dempsey said more than 5,000 applications for special educational resources had been received by his Department between February 15th and August 31st, 2003, alone, with 4,000 outstanding.
Another 2,200 had also been received since September 1st, 2003, he revealed.