Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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324. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the guidelines for providing a secretarial allowance to principals who act as secretariat to the board of management at their school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58690/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Secretary to Board of Management allowance was introduced in 2007 following an agreement reached at the Teachers Conciliation Council (Agreed Report 3/06), following a recommendation of the Teachers Arbitration Board in 2003 that an allowance should be put in place for all Principals who carry out work as Secretary outside of normal working hours. The allowance was payable in one of 5 categories based on student enrolment in the school.

The duties of a Secretary to a Board of Management include setting the agenda for meetings and recording minutes, dealing with Board of Management correspondence, providing information to members concerning Board of Management rights and responsibilities and advance development of school policies. The duty is optional and where a Principal does not act as Secretary, the Board elects a Secretary from its other members – no allowance is payable to that Secretary.

In September 2012 my Department implemented the outcome of the review of allowances and premium payments by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The outcome of which was that many allowances, including this allowance, were no longer payable to many new public service entrants including “new entrant” teachers.

Circular 0008 of 2013 outlines the effect of this review on teachers. In common with a number of job-role based allowances, sanction for payment to new beneficiaries was withdrawn from 1st February 2012 under the terms of the Circular. Furthermore, if a teacher was eligible for receipt of the allowance prior to 1st February 2012 and subsequently left that job role on a voluntary basis, their entitlement to the allowance ceases from the date of the move and they cannot re-gain entitlement.

Additional amendments to teacher terms and conditions, including pay and allowances, may be achieved through engagement and collective bargaining agreements between the Government and the public service unions.