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

Nothing moves in a school without the school secretary or caretaker knowing about it. The jobs they do vary enormously, from correspondence and telephone calls to welcoming guests and inputting menus for school lunches. If a child is hurt they go to the secretary. The school would grind to a complete halt without them and the caretakers.

There is enormous inequality among school secretaries and between school secretaries and other employments. The variation in pay is enormous and many do not qualify for pension entitlements, which is appalling. This is replicated in other parts of the public sector, often where the Government has been trying to get out of paying by saying it is not the employer, such as in the case of community employment scheme, CE, supervisors. It constantly states it is not the employer, despite the fact that these employments have been created by the State and the money has been provided for them by the State. They are employees of the State in all but name. Many who are thinking ahead to retirement are very concerned as to how they are going to manage. For many school secretaries, this is not just about fairness but potential hardship. Their incomes are so limited that they are very concerned and they need this to be fixed, which is what they deserve.

Protests are happening at 250 schools around the country and some 1,000 schools are affected. I commend all those involved. It is very difficult and credit is due to Fórsa as it is a difficult area in which to organise. Credit is due to the secretaries who got involved in the campaign and in the industrial action to stand up for their rights. This has gone on for far too long, in fact for decades. The Minister previously referred to the various Ministers who have been over this area but who failed to address it. I hope the current Minister is the Minister to address it. Some secretaries are earning €12,500 per year, which is absolutely appalling. They are on irregular short-term contracts which force them to sign on during the summer holidays. A few hundred are paid directly by the Department but the majority of the 3,500 school secretaries are paid through the annual ancillary grant that is awarded to schools by the Department. In our alternative budget, which we launched yesterday morning, we allocated €7 million to this issue, which will work towards pay equality for school secretaries. However, we need to go far beyond that and I hope the Department addresses this in the budget coming up in the next week.

People give out about public sector pay at times but it should be a matter of pride for the State to pay its employees well. We should be proud of paying public servants well and fairly but these secretaries are not paid well, fairly or proportionally to the work they do. There is huge inequality and there are issues relating to pensions, all of which need to be fixed.

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