Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Minister is in the Chamber today. As she knows, families and children who depend on school escorts know the importance of that role in ensuring children can go to school in a semi-independent way. School escorts are low-paid workers and many of them have to engage in other work to supplement their income. Often they are special needs assistants, SNAs, or in other work. It has only come to light in the past fortnight to three weeks that the impact of circular 0024/2021, which was issued last April, by my measurement and the measurement of some of the school escorts and school principals who are administering the pay for school escorts, is a unilateral pay cut imposed on many school escorts. Anybody working 230 or fewer hours per term or, on average, 4.6 or fewer hours per day will be worse off because of this new pay arrangement. The new pay arrangement is, effectively, to get rid of the rolling up of the holiday pay, the additional 8% which was incorporated into the basic hourly pay, and to set aside days in respect of holidays.

The Department set out in the circular that this had to be in line with the European working time directive. To be frank, it is not at all apparent why this would be the case. Of course, school escorts were going to get holidays anyway at Christmas, Easter and during the summer. One school principal said to me that the impact of this pay cut for the school escorts in his school amounts to just short of €500 per year, which is a large amount of money for a low-paid worker. I am seeking answers today with regard to the rationale behind the circular and the impact of the circular on school escorts. I note that within the circular there is an assurance that no school escort will be worse off, yet when we do the figures we know that some escorts working 230 or fewer hours per term will be worse off. Very serious questions are being posed here and I am seeking reassurance that no school escort will be worse off because of this change in how school escorts are paid.