Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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636. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on secretaries working in primary schools who are paid out of the ancillary grant, many of whom have been in employment for 16 years and have not received any salary increase in that time as they are not direct employees of her Department, despite circulars having been issued that state they should be paid by the hour; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5421/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department provides capitation funding to all recognised primary schools.

Where a school uses the grant funding to employ a secretary or caretaker, such staff are employees of individual schools. My Department therefore does not have any role in determining the pay and conditions under which they are engaged. These are matters to be agreed between the staff concerned and the school authorities.

Notwithstanding this, my Department agreed an arbitration process in relation to the pay of grant-funded school secretaries and caretakers.

The detailed arrangements are set out in Circular 0076/2015 that was published in December 2015 on the Department's website.

In 2016 the ancillary grant is being increased by €6 from €147 to €153 per pupil.