Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is nothing new in this response. I still have no clarity on what will happen to the school secretaries this summer. That is really their main concern at this point. In addition, I do not want to get started on circulars and the way the Department deals with schools. The Minister of State is saying a small number of schools have not responded. It may be voluntary for school secretaries to take up this pay deal, but surely to God it cannot be voluntary for schools to send out a survey to find out what their school secretaries want out of this. I accept that the Minister of State is here on behalf of the Minister for Education, but I need to be assured that she will not allow even one school to fail to respond to this survey. Will the Minister of State voluntarily come back to the House and to me to say what will happen this summer in relation to these school secretaries? It does not make any sense to me that it would take nearly two years to get a payroll system up and running for school secretaries and yet we can have pay rises for people at a drop of a hat when it comes to politicians and other people in the public service.