The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has warned that it will not support the proposed new weighted system for special needs allocation at primary level unless an additional 650 teachers are appointed.
Mr John Carr, general secretary of the INTO, said that while the organisation had welcomed the announcement of 350 extra teachers earlier this year by then Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, this was only a "down-payment" on the estimated total of 1,000 teachers needed at primary level.
"The key issue is that special education needs a further 650 teachers to make the system work effectively. Without those extra teachers a proper service cannot be delivered . . . The INTO will not support this system until the extra teachers are in place," he said.
"The INTO is seriously concerned that the ratios decided by the Department will not adequately address the needs of all schools. There is a particular concern at the impact of the general ratio on smaller schools." However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education and Science said the revised system aimed to remedy problems experienced with the previous system.
The number of special needs assistants had increased from 300 to some 5,500 since 1998, she also pointed out.
Meanwhile, both the INTO and Fine Gael have strongly criticised a recent letter sent out by the Department in which it instructs school principals not to telephone it with queries about the allocation of individual special needs resources. Mr Carr said teachers had been promised a dedicated phone helpline to deal with queries in relation to special education.
"An instruction not to phone runs counter to this," he said. "The directive not to phone is a cause of delay and frustration for principal teachers." Mr David Stanton, Fine Gael's deputy education spokesman, called on the newly-appointed Minister for Education and Science, Ms Hanafin, to clarify whether she supported the decision.
This simply served to create an "additional layer" of bureaucracy and delays to the process, he said.
The Department spokeswoman said no blanket ban on principals telephoning the Department had been issued. The suggestion contained in the letter simply represented a request which aimed to help manage queries to the Department, she added.