Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Is the Minister of State aware a number of secretaries and caretakers have not complained to NERA out of loyalty to their schools? That is the main reason for them not making complaints to the agency but they are concerned. In other cases when the issue was raised with boards of management and the staff threatened to go to NERA, their hours of employment were reduced substantially but they still worked as many hours as they had done previously out of sheer loyalty. An abuse is taking place and there is a simple way to deal with it. The Minister of State should make representations to the Department of Education and Science to employ the secretaries and caretakers directly. Will he consider doing that?

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