Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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389. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the current status of the implementation of the agreement on terms and conditions for school secretaries as agreed in March 2022; the status of back payments on pay increases; the discussions that have taken place in regard to school secretaries becoming employees of her Department rather than employees of individual schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14820/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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A very significant agreement was reached between my Department and Fórsa, the union representing school secretaries and caretakers. This deal, which was reached after extensive engagement between the Department and Fórsa, provides for significant improvements n the terms and conditions of school secretaries. Fórsa agreed to recommend the package of measures to its members and a ballot resulted in 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.

Last year, my Department issued circular 36/2022 to schools and this circular outlines how the agreement is to be implemented. In the first phase of implementation of the agreement, schools had to, by the end of September 2022, calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement due and offer it to each individual secretary working in their school. Entry into the new pay arrangements is voluntary for existing members of staff.

Following this initial process, a survey issued from the payroll division of my Department to all schools on the 7th November 2022, seeking details of the offers made by schools to their secretaries, and other information required to bring a secretary on to the payroll service. The survey closed in December and based on the returns received, nearly 2,850 secretaries have accepted the offer made by their schools in line with the methodology set out in Circular 36/2022.

The second implementation phase will involve calculating back pay to September 2021, taking into account the pay increases from February 2022 and October 2022, and/or any other public service pay agreements as may be relevant at the time calculations are performed.

School secretaries who opt into the new arrangement including payment of salary by the Department’s payroll, they will remain employees of the Board of management of their school.

The plan is that Secretaries who have accepted the offer made to them by their schools will be paid on my Department’s payroll service from 1st September 2023 and this remains a priority for my Department this year.