Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow, school secretaries and caretakers represented by the Fórsa trade union will return to talks at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, regarding pay and pension arrangements for grant-funded positions. These protracted talks continue despite the Tánaiste stating in this Chamber in the first months of the Government that it was the objective of the Government to regularise employment terms, conditions and pension rights for school secretaries. I expect I will get the stock reply about letting the process run its course, but the stumbling block to a settlement is the obvious intransigence on the part of the two Ministers involved in the talks. Will the Taoiseach appeal to the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy McGrath, directly to settle this now along the lines contained in the Fianna Fail election manifesto which stated that it is manifestly unfair that two people doing the same job with the same qualifications and to the same standard should be on vastly different wages? Alternatively, does he endorse the continued delay which is characteristic of the Ministers who are captured by the Departments they supposedly lead?

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