Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On that issue, there has been engagement between my Department and the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. The way in which the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is funded is different from all the other Votes. It is given a three-year budget and that is done by means of an Act of the Oireachtas every three years, so later this year the Oireachtas will have to pass an Act providing for the budget for the commission for the next three years. There are some discussions under way regarding secretarial assistants and pay issues. I cannot go into any more detail than that.

Regarding the school secretaries, I welcome the progress we have made on the pay scale. The trade union called off the industrial action for a short number of weeks to allow the detail of that to be fleshed out. We all have great regard for the work done by school secretaries. This is an issue I was very keen to make progress on when I came into office and if we can implement this, it will be very significant progress. The school secretaries and, indeed, the caretakers will continue to have other issues on which they will seek progress, and we will continue engagement on those. However, getting a pay scale that has public sector equivalence was a key request from them and that has now been achieved. I look forward to seeing that being implemented.