The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has emphasised his support for the rights of parents of special needs children.
Responding to criticism of a Dβil reply issued by him earlier this week, a spokesman for Dr Woods said reports based on his reply were "grossly misleading".
In a reply to questions from Mr Billy Timmins TD, Dr Woods said it was "entirely unacceptable" that parents of special needs children resorted to the courts on their behalf.
The use of this phrase was criticised by Ms Kathryn Sinnott, mother of Jamie.
But the Department emphasised strongly that Dr Woods said it was unacceptable that parents found it "necessary" to go to the courts.
His fully reply to Mr Timmins was: "I regard it as entirely unacceptable that any parent, and in particular a parent of a child with special needs, should find it necessary to resort to litigation to secure their child's educational entitlements".
He added: "While this Government has presided over an unprecedented level of development in special education services, I am fully aware that much work remains to be done."
A Department spokesman said Dr Woods believed parents had the right to go to court, but he hoped it would no longer be necessary when several reforms in the area of special needs were introduced.
He said in August that he announced a range of new measures to improve the services for special education.
These measures which were announced by the Minister included the following:
the holding of special needs education forum;
the introduction of a Disabilities (Education and Training) Bill;
the accelerated development of the national educational psychological service;
the development of the national council for special education;
the setting up of a group of senior officials in the Department to examine education services with special needs at second level.