Irish students are to have predictive or calculated grades in lieu of State exams due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Britain is facing fallout from a similar approach.
The UK government and the British exams regulator Ofqual are being threatened with legal action, as pressure mounts for a re-think over the awarding of grades.
Around 280,000 students there saw their grades fall by one grade or more from their predicted results following the introduction of a new 'moderation' algorithm.
Further confusion was added to the row on Saturday, when Ofqual suspended its own policy for students wishing to appeal their results.
Just hours after it published criteria for mock exam results to be considered as the basis of an appeal, the guidance was withdrawn and the regulator said it was reviewing the policy.
George Parker is the political editor of the Financial Times.
He told On The Record that this is just the latest headache for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
"His approval ratings regarding the coronavirus have fallen sharply over the last few months, he was seen as having locked the country down far too late.
"We have ended up with the highest deaths I think in Europe, and certainly the worst economic hit of any of the G7 countries".
"We're in the middle of a bit of an exams fiasco at the moment as well - so as a result a lot of trust in Boris Johnson I think has evaporated and it's crucial for him that he gets out of this quickly and that he somehow finds a way of putting the economy back on track in an orderly sort of way".
"Basically Scotland and the rest of the UK have used a similar type of thing where kids haven't been able to sit their exams.
"As a result, the results have been based on teacher predictions - but then they've been standardised, or in practice downgraded, using a computer algorithm.
"The problem with the algorithm used in the UK is that it basically discriminates against bright children... in other words, the algorithm looks at the past record of a school in question: say you might be a bright kid who's been predicted three A stars for example.
"But because in the past that school hasn't done very well, you end up with your grades being downgraded.
"So as a result, you've got a lot of bright kids - the very kids that Boris Johnson says he wants to help - who are losing out on places at prestigious universities simply because the computer says no."
It comes after the Scottish government apologised to students there over downgraded exam results.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon admitted her government did not get it right over local exam results, amid concerns that pupils from poorer areas were unfairly affected by a moderation formula to calculate final results.
With no central exams there because of the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to Ireland, teachers graded pupils and the grades were then moderated by academic boards.
Speaking last week, Labour's education spokesman Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said: "In fairness to the Scottish system, even though they gave all the reassurances that were given in Ireland, the first minister has apologised and says they're going to try and correct it".
"I really hope I'm wrong - and we really hope that we're wrong - but on the 7th and 8th of September if it turns out that we're right, Government have to be in a position to correct it".
"There's an appeals process that only affects the way the exam result was arrived at - basically the totting up of the numbers, not the actual grade itself, this is the issue.
"You can only appeal the mechanics rather than the grade, and that's a difficulty that students are going to have."
Additional reporting: IRN
