The Tánaiste is claiming the government commitment to special needs students cannot be doubted.

The National Council for Special Education has announced a 10% cut in teaching hours for children with special needs from September because of an increase in demand.

The decision means that from September students with special needs will have 15 minutes less teaching time.

Opposition parties are calling for the move to be reversed describing it as an attack on the most vulnerable in society.

The INTO is organising a protest against the cuts. The Irish National Teachers Organisation is calling on parents and teachers to protest at Leinster House on Wednesday.

Carol Lennon is from Mornington in Co. Meath and has 5 children with special needs, and says she will be forced to take them out of mainstream schools as a result of this decision.

"I wanted them to have a mainstream education because I believe that they can achieve in mainstream - I feel that I'm being left with no choice" she said.

"Specifically for the older one who is 11 - I don't think he's going to survive, I think he's going to struggle".

"And it's not necessarily academically - it's socially and emotionally, he's already depressed at 11" she added.

Speaking in the Dail Eamon Gilmore said there are no cuts but that changing how the resource is best used for those who most need it is sensible.