Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions for the representative of Fórsa first. I realise employment contracts and so forth are for another conversation, but it has a direct impact on a school and the morale in a school. It appears to be quite gendered as well. The school secretaries and SNAs who will not be able to access pensions, holiday pay and so forth are mainly women. The caretakers in most cases are men, but it is mainly women who are affected by the employment conditions. Will Mr. Pike talk a little more about the atmosphere and morale created in the school setting when there are, perhaps, two secretaries in an office and in the staffroom there are different non-teaching staff along with the teachers, given the inequality that exists between them? What does that do for the environment? Will he give us a better picture of how that looks on the ground, especially for school secretaries?

I believe the Department has to intervene with regard to SNAs. I have been inundated over the past month with communications from SNAs about the conditions in which they work. The Department says it provides funding to the schools and the schools employ the SNAs.

There needs to be some accountability here, however, particularly when it comes to the 72 hours. We hear contributions here all the time on barriers to education, whether they are about special education or Traveller education, yet it is being recommended that SNAs use up these 72 hours. Moreover, some schools quite literally abuse this from the accounts we have received. We heard of one SNA being told to wash the teacher's car and other cases involving cleaning toilets and everything other than what those extra 72 hours could be used for. We hear evidence at this committee about how much extra support certain students need, yet these 72 hours are being abused. Can Ms Carton comment on the role the Department should be playing in intervening in respect of the conditions under which SNAs work? I am quite happy to send on the many emails I have received. I know they have lots of concerns about the 13 recommendations made by the NCSE. There has been no engagement with Fórsa, which represents a lot of SNAs. Should that engagement happen before the new school year?

What is the Department's position regarding looking at pay scales for school secretaries? Much of today's business relates to the Department regarding how it can intervene and whether it also involves communication with the business committee. I am not sure how the Department is going to address the inequalities that exist in the school setting.