Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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348. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when school secretaries will transfer to her Department’s payroll; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56539/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In February of this year, following a series of engagements at the WRC, a suite of measures designed to improve the working conditions of school secretaries was proposed, which Fórsa agreed to recommend to its members. A ballot was undertaken, and the result was 95% agreement in favour of the deal.

Since then, in conjunction with Fórsa, work to implement this agreement has been ongoing in my Department. This work requires a complex process of assimilating information to capture accurate data in respect of each individual secretary.

The Department has issued circular 36/2022 to schools which outlines how the agreement will be implemented. This included the requirement that, as part of the first phase of implementation of the agreement, schools had to, by the end of September, calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement and offer it to each individual secretary working in their school. Following this, a survey issued to all schools on the 7^thNovember, seeking further details of the offers made by schools to their secretaries, and also other information to facilitate the onboarding of those secretaries who accept the offer, to the Department’s payroll. The survey is due to close on 18^thNovember.

Alongside this an IT system is being developed to collect the data and action the payroll obligations. It is anticipated that payroll services for those secretaries who have accepted the offer will be operational from the beginning of the 2023/2024 school year.