Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that Fórsa and the Department reached agreement on a deal for school secretaries earlier this year. That pay deal, I understand, was to be backdated to September 2021. Has that been processed at this point in time? Where does it stand in terms of increased pay for school secretaries? With regard to Western Building Solutions, or whichever contractor was involved in schools in which defects were found, have the additional costs of remediating those defects been budgeted for?

Regarding the €245 million allocated for school buildings, an issue I have come across three times recently is the Department's reluctance to fund school halls that can be used for sport and physical education, PE, etc. In one instance, there was an outright refusal to fund the hall, while in another, a multipurpose room was provided but that does not satisfy the need for a hall because it is too small. In a third case, a school is struggling to get clearance for a hall. We are proposing to have PE available as a subject for all students at leaving certificate level, if they want it, and we also have the context of Healthy Ireland and everything we are trying to promote with that initiative. There seems to be a blockage when it comes to schools being able to access funding for a school hall, whether in the context of a new building or renovation. I do not know if the Minister can give an answer on that issue but I urge her to address it within her Department. As I said, I have come across three schools in the last three months or so that are having difficulty accessing funding for a hall.