Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and allowing me to clarify the current position in relation to pay and conditions for school secretaries. As we know from our engagement with schools in our respective constituencies, the school secretary is very much at the heart of the school and is the key interface between students, parents, school leaders and other staff. Without them, our schools would be unsustainable. In supporting these vital school staff members we also support the school community as a whole.

The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools traditionally received assistance to provide for secretarial, caretaking and cleaning services under grant schemes. Where a school employed a staff member to support those functions those staff are not public servants but employees of individual schools and responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school. Since September 2023, the Department has been providing a payroll service for former grant-funded school secretaries. I am glad to be able to say that currently 85% of school secretaries have opted for the new package and are on the Department administered payroll. This happened on foot of an agreement reached in 2022 under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission that secretaries would move to a centralised payroll managed by the Department and receive new terms and conditions of employment.

As the Deputy knows, school secretaries now benefit from an alignment with the clerical officer grade III pay scale within education and training boards on a pro rata basis. In addition, it was agreed pay increases under future national agreements will be passed on to secretaries and this has happened with each pay increase since the implementation of the agreement. My Department has also improved the conditions for school secretaries with regard to sick leave, annual leave and maternity provisions for this category of staff. For example, where only 51% of grant-funded secretaries had paid sick leave previously, all those who have onboarded to the Department's payroll now have access to paid sick leave entitlements.

I acknowledge that Fórsa is looking to future improvements to terms and conditions for secretaries and recognise that for them public service status and access to a public service pension is understandably an important objective. The issue of public service status is complex and needs to have regard to the state of the public finances and the repercussive effects of any such proposals for other grant-funded groups of non-public servants. For those reasons, any proposals must be considered in detail by the Department of Education's officials and those in the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform as the granting or otherwise of public servant status is not within the scope of the Department of Education alone.

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