The pupil teacher ratio in primary schools has not been increased, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has insisted in the Dáil.
During sharp exchanges with Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald about disadvantaged schools and those in the Deis (Delivering Equality of opportunity In Schools) scheme, Mr Gilmore said "a number of posts will be made available for alleviation measures for the schools most affected by the changes in the budget".
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn met a number of school principals earlier this week and "has undertaken to ensure that Deis Band 1 junior schools will be placed on a staffing schedule based on an average of one teacher for 20 pupils".
He said "this will enable them to continue to have smaller class sizes for the youngest children starting school".
Thirty two schools with "legacy" posts that provided for one teacher for every 15 pupils in junior classes only "will now have a staffing schedule that operates on the basis of an average of one teacher per 18 junior pupils".
He said "all schools will be notified in January 2012, three months earlier than normal, of their staffing entitlements under the new arrangement, including any alleviation measures that may apply".
The removal of the "legacy" posts would be "managed as sensitively as possible given current constraints means that resources available for Deis schools can be spread evenly so that all children can be treated equally and equitably".
He accused Ms McDonald of "making things up" when she hit out at cuts to disadvantaged schools and highlighted the impact on pupils' development, across the State.
Ms McDonald asked him if the Minister for Education who met schools principals earlier this week that "they were making things up".
The Tánaiste said the Minister "is very well aware that some schools will be "particularly impacted by the withdrawal of legacy disadvantage posts".
But the Sinn Féin Dublin Central TD told the Tanaiste not to insult the intelligence of the Dail or the general public by using the "connivance" of describing teaching jobs to be lost as "legacy" posts.
She asked would his own legacy be that of a Labour Government seeking "to sabotage the work done by a previous Labour party education minister".
She told him he was "some piece of work" to talk about fairness and equality.
"There's a reason why these schools were given a better pupil teacher ratio and that size of class was working", she said and sharply criticised him for describing the issue as "legacy matters".
Mr Gilmore insisted the position of pupils in disadvantaged schools and their special needs "will continue to be recognised by this Government, will be address by the Minister".
He added: "The Minister is going to pay far more attention to the reasoned arguments and reasoned cases which are made to him by the principals of the schools than he is to some kind of a political rant."