Fine Gael has accused the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, of a "litany of incompetence" over the provision of support for children with special educational needs.
In a statement, its education spokeswoman, Ms Olwyn Enright, said many schools would be returning after the holidays with less support for children with special needs than last year. She said the average wait for a child to see a psychologist was now 6½ months, with more than a quarter of children waiting for over nine months.
She accused Mr Dempsey of overseeing an effective cut in the number of resource hours and special needs assistants for those children most in need of help.
Up to 88 per cent of applications for special educational resources received by his Department since February 2003 had received no response, she said.
"At the end of June, Minister Dempsey announced a new model for the provision of support to children with special educational needs. The ink was not yet dry on his press statement when he admitted to me that some schools would lose out under his new system of weighted allocation of resources," Ms Enright said.
However, Mr Dempsey yesterday claimed the Fine Gael statement was "peppered with inaccuracies". There had been no cutbacks in the level of resources available, he said. Where resources had been refused, this was because the applicant did not meet the necessary criteria.