Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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89. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to a situation at a school (details supplied) in County Wexford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52281/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy will be familiar with the moratorium on recruitment and promotions, in accordance with which no public service post, however arising, may be filled by recruitment, promotion or payment of an allowance for performance of duties at a higher grade. In that regard, the Department was granted a limited derogation from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform which allowed administrative and maintenance posts in ETB schools to be sanctioned in exceptional circumstances.

The school to which the Deputy refers is an Education and Training Board (ETB) school. The Department provides a caretaking/maintenance staffing allocation to each ETB, and the distribution of this staffing allocation amongst its schools is a matter for the ETB in question. Accordingly, requests for additional maintenance staff are made to the Department by ETBs, not by individual schools. In May 2011 the Department received a request from Co Wexford VEC for additional caretaking resources, in respect of the school to which the Deputy refers. This request was not granted, in the context of the moratorium on recruitment. The VEC appealed the Department's decision in October 2011 and this appeal was not upheld. The Department has not been contacted by the VEC/ETB since that point in time, although a number of representations have more recently been made in the matter. If the school authorities wish to pursue this matter they should address their concerns to Waterford and Wexford ETB in the first instance.