Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second the Order of Business. I also wish to be associated with the sympathies expressed on the death of the former Senator and Deputy, Dermot Fitzpatrick. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party, I extend condolences to our colleague, Senator Mary Fitzpatrick, and to Niamh, who works in the Houses of the Oireachtas. I had the opportunity to meet Dermot a number of times. He wore his wisdom very lightly. He was such a lovely man to meet. He was always interested in people and the human story. That was what made him an excellent GP and an excellent parliamentarian. He served his community and country extremely well. Of course, our sympathies are with his beloved wife and children today.

I wish to compliment our colleagues in Government, the Ministers, Deputies Foley and Michael McGrath, in terms of the historic decision reached yesterday in regard to school secretaries. This was a glaring injustice to school secretaries. When I was Chair of the education committee, I put a strong focus on this issue. I could not believe that secretaries, who are the heartbeat of our schools in our communities, were treated so badly by the State considering the tremendous service they have given.

Since the programme for Government was put together, I know that both Ministers, Deputies Foley and Michael McGrath, were committed to ensuring this injustice would be righted. Of course, Fórsa played a big role in terms of the negotiations and I congratulate its members and the school secretaries. Of those who were balloted, some 95% agreed to take this offer, which included that their pay scale would be aligned with the clerical officer grade 3 pay scale and be backdated, importantly, to 1 September 2021, as well as the ending of the practice of school secretaries signing on over the summer months. That is really important. We can now move on to dealing with the caretakers.

I wish to briefly raise the CSO census of 2022, which we know everybody will be taking part in on 3 April, and I encourage everyone to do so. On the issue about citizens' gender identity, while a person's sex is included, gender is not. The options are just "male" and "female". I heard on the radio in recent days that people have the option of ticking both boxes if they are transgender or non-binary, although the CSO will decide whether that is male or female. That is sending out the completely wrong message. People who do not identify as male or female should have the option, if they are identifying, to tick both boxes or tick neither box, and that this would be taken as non-binary or transgender. The results that come from the census inform public policy in the following years, in terms of health needs etc. Some clarity needs to be brought to that issue.