Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome what the Minister said. It is a step forward and, hopefully, will be an end to the kick-the-can-down-the-road approach which the Department has taken so far. It is important that Fórsa and the school secretaries get a signal from the Minister and his Department that they want to end the two-tier system and have an equitable deal starting on 1 January 2020. It is not my role to pre-empt any industrial relations discussions. However, now that the Minister is going to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, that is what he will have to go with. Given that there are hundreds of school secretaries watching this debate, it is a shame that the Minister could not state now that he wants to see an end to the two-tier system for the employment of secretaries and an equitable deal. He said something, however, that is positive which we welcome. We look forward to fruitful negotiations with the WRC which will end the discrimination that these women - they are mainly women - have suffered for two generations.

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