Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has told the Dáil that the Budget decision to remove extra funding from Protestant secondary schools was taken on the advice of the Attorney General.
He said the AG had advised that the Government would be unable to defend the extra funding if it was challenged by a Catholic school.
Mr O'Keeffe said he would meet Church of Ireland bishops in the next two weeks to discuss the issue.
In another development, Opposition parties have criticised the Social Welfare Bill that gives effect to a number of decisions made in the Budget.
The legislation, published today, provides for a weekly increase of €7 to pensioners and carers over 66 and for an increase in the PRSI earnings ceiling from €50,700 to €52,000 per annum.
Fine Gael said the Bill was the 'final nail in the coffin for Fianna Fáil's false claims that the vulnerable would be protected'.
The Labour Party has described it as the meanest in many years, and an attack on children, the unemployed, and people with illnesses or disabilities.
Deputy Roisin Shortall said payment increases were miserly, and in many instances did not keep pace with inflation.
