Figures released by the Minister for Education show a very large difference in the number of places for children with disabilities and other special needs between primary and second-level schools.
According to figures issued by Mr Martin in response to a Dail question, there were 382 special classes with 4,013 pupils at primary level last year. Of these, 170 classes, with 2,015 pupils, were in the Dublin area, and 212 classes with 1,998 pupils were in the rest of the State.
The numbers at second-level were dramatically lower. There were 81 classes with 933 pupils in the State as a whole, a decrease of more than 75 per cent, and 25 classes and 281 pupils in the Dublin area, a fall of more than 86 per cent compared to primary.
Department of Education sources said structured provision for special needs children at second level was a relatively recent phenomenon, which had begun seriously to be addressed only since the 1993 report of the Special Education Review Committee. Until the 1980s they had not been thought of as capable of benefiting from such education.
The sources said second-level schools, which were subject rather than class-based, did not find it easy to put on special classes. They noted that the Minister's figures did not take into account the proportion of the pupils in special primary schools - and the much smaller numbers in special primary classes - who stayed on into their post-primary years. The former include children with severe or profound handicaps and autism.
However, although statistics are non-existent, there is considerable anecdotal evidence of problems with the transfer of children with less serious learning or behavioural difficulties to second level, and significant numbers are known to drop out. More academic secondary schools are reluctant to take them, and offer few special classes for them. Vocational schools - which usually take the majority - worry that they will be seen as "dumping grounds" for slower students.
A north Co Dublin primary principal says that only one of the four post-primary schools in his town offered a designated special needs class, although another might be planning to take some next September. This means there are only about 12-14 second-level places for the 26-28 children who attend special classes at two local primary schools.
"I know where these children are now. I know where they should go when they leave our primary schools. But I'm not fully sure that they actually transfer," he says.
He believes that most of them go into the lowest academic classes at second-level schools, where there is little or no special provision for them. He worries that at a time when politicians, employers and educationists are stressing the importance of preventing early school leaving, they will quickly swell the ranks of those who drop out at 15, if not before.
The general secretary of the Secretariat of Secondary Schools, Mr George O'Callaghan, said there were no figures for the number of students with special needs in second-level schools. He said the Department of Education's criteria for allocating remedial and resource teachers for such students was "something of a mystery" and when it came to applying for them, it was a question of "every school for itself".
Dr Desmond Swan, emeritus professor of education at UCD, praised Mr Martin for giving children with learning difficulties the first-ever statutory right to an education appropriate to their needs through the Education Act.
However he said it was children with special needs at primary level who were mainly benefiting from this so far.
The Minister said last month that second-level provision for special needs children was currently being examined by a departmental steering group.