Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Seamus Healy.

The Green Party has consistently supported the Fórsa Support our Secretaries campaign which is seeking fair treatment and equality for school secretaries. This is not a dispute which has come out of the blue. Like many other Members, this is not the first time I have raised this issue with the Minister in the Dáil and it was also discussed in detail at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills in April. This has gone on long enough. We cannot continue to stand aside and allow hard-working administrators, who are central to the functioning of our education system, to struggle under such unfair working conditions. As a former teacher, I know only too well how crucial, central and critical the role of the school secretary is on a day-to-day basis in running any school and ensuring it functions properly. They are key to everything that happens in school life. The work they do far exceeds the responsibility set out in any job description to which they sign up or in those used by the Public Appointments Service.

The problem is that we have an antiquated two-tier system of employment. We have one group made up of secretaries who are under contract with the Department of Education and Skills and enjoy the benefits and protections of public servants. For every one of these secretaries, however, we have heard horror stories involving other secretaries having to draw social welfare payments in order to make ends meet over the summer months, having no access to medical leave or being denied even the moderate pay rises to which they are entitled. A resolution to this dispute is available to the Minister.

I fully support the call by secretaries for a new system of direct employment by the Department of Education and Skills to be implemented. In an education system where teachers and principals, who rely so heavily on school secretaries, are directly paid by the Department, I see no sense in school secretaries being the exception, especially when we see the inequity this separate status can cause.

Like teachers, school secretaries do substantially similar work regardless of where they are based. They are also expected to work with departmental administrative systems regardless of whether they are employed by the Department. It makes no sense for some secretaries to be working under such unfair conditions in comparison with their colleagues. A single-tier system, provided by the Department, is needed to address this.

The price of inaction will be an entirely justified escalation of industrial action on the part of secretaries, which will ultimately impact on the functioning of our schools and learning outcomes for our students. I urge the Minister to intervene now to prevent this unnecessary disruption and secure the rights of workers who have been pushed to the margins for far too long.

Fórsa has requested that the Department utilise the services of the WRC in an effort to resolve this dispute through meaningful talks. Let those talks begin as soon as possible.

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