Opposition deputies have condemned the Education Bill as being "minimalist and singularly devoid of vision". Labour's education spokesman, Mr Brian O'Shea, said the legislation was "underpinned by cuteness as distinct from flair, incisiveness and decisiveness".

The Minister for Education, Mr Martin, who introduced the Bill in the Dail, described the legislation as an enabling framework - one which "protects valuable traditions and allows for the further development of the system". He said the Bill had grown from a "consideration and distillation of the views of many".

Mr O'Shea claimed, however, that the Minister had "in no uncertain manner signalled that he doesn't intend being a catalyst for any real change against the background of a rapidly changing social order and a growing marginalised under-class".

The legislation, "by seeking to offend nobody, ends up bland and totally misses the wonderful opportunity presented. In effect, it does a violence to future generations and blights the prospect of real partnership in education."

The Waterford TD said the Bill was a wasted opportunity. "The Irish education system urgently needs a radical and progressive statutory framework. Minister Martin has singularly failed to provide this."

Praising his party colleague and former minister Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, Mr O'Shea said the current Minister had "rolled back the reforming decentralisation dynamic" proposed by Ms Breathnach.

"Among the glaring errors of the Bill is the refusal of the Minister to impose a statutory obligation on schools to introduce boards of management. The Minister has chosen to support the practice where parents and teachers are excluded from management of their schools. This is wrong and must be changed at committee stage."

The Labour spokesman criticised the Minister for "turning his back on the gender balance provision" for boards of management. This represented a lack of commitment to promote equality and balance in the management of schools.

Fine Gael's education spokesman was equally critical. Mr Richard Bruton said that what was left of the Bill after the Minister "recooked" it was "pretty thin gruel". He accused the Minister of taking out anything that challenged the existing system. "The biggest losers in this process have been parents and students with special needs."

Mr Bruton said that children with special needs would particularly lose out. "We should look to other countries who have put in place progressive legislative frameworks which demand that the potential of each child is developed to their maximum capacity and that obstacles in their way are systematically overcome."

The Minister had paid no more than lip service to educational disadvantage, "the issue that should be most prominently exercising the mind of policy-makers". There was no mention of the essential role of career guidance services in schools. The Dublin North Central TD also condemned what he called the Minister's consolidated "stranglehold" on the education system because of the abandonment of the Regional Education Boards.

"This is coming from a Minister whose main attack on his predecessor was the accusation that she sought to wield excessive power over the system."

Mr Martin told deputies, however, that the boards would have made the Minister's power more comprehensive rather than devolving it.

"Many inflated claims were made" for regional educational boards, he said. The concept was fundamentally flawed educationally and financially.

He believed they would also have been "the vehicle for the massive extension of State control of schools and would have greatly increased levels of bureaucracy".

The Minister said the autonomy of schools would be enhanced by the legislation. The Bill gave specific statutory recognition to the patron of schools. "It gives statutory support to the right of anyone to establish a school according to a particular characteristic spirit."

The Minister said the Bill was "an important milestone on the path to a more open and responsive education system for all.

"The unprecedented round of consultations which preceded its publication has been one of the elements behind the positive response it has received from most parts of the education community."