Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister agree it is extremely regrettable that in many cases, valuable people in a school such as school secretaries still must routinely go onto social welfare for the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays? They lose their income when the schools are not open. All Members, and especially those who are parents, have experience of the work school secretaries, who are largely women, do. These women have to go on the dole in those situations. Whatever about that happening ten or 20 years ago, it is not appropriate in an Ireland that has now recovered from some of the very difficult economic things that happened - as the Government keeps telling us. Would the Minister agree that he does not want to see any school secretary being forced to lose his or her job and go on the dole during summer, Christmas or Easter holidays and to have no status as an experienced worker, many of whom have given service to schools for decades, as we have heard at the Fórsa presentation?

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