Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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486. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to give public sector status for all secretaries and caretakers working in schools, to be given access to the same rights, the same certainty of a pension on retirement and salaries as the teachers and SNAs that they work alongside; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25844/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The school secretary is at the heart of the school and is the key interface between students, parents, school leaders and other staff. Without them, our schools would be unsustainable. In supporting these vital school staff members, we also support the school community as a whole.

The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools traditionally received assistance to provide for secretarial, caretaking and cleaning services under grant schemes. Where a school employed a staff member to support those functions those staff are not public servants but employees of individual schools and responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school.

Since September 2023 my department has been providing a payroll service for former grant funded school secretaries and I am delighted to say that currently 85% of school secretaries have opted for the new package and are on the Department administered payroll. This happened on foot of an Agreement reached in 2022, under the auspices of the WRC, that secretaries would move to a centralised pay roll managed by the Department and receive new terms and conditions of employment.

As you know, school secretaries now benefit from an alignment with the Clerical Officer Grade III pay scale within education and training boards on a pro rata basis. In addition, it was agreed that pay increases under future national agreements will be passed onto secretaries and this has happened with each pay increase since the implementation of the agreement.

My Department has also improved the conditions for School Secretaries with regard to sick leave, annual leave and maternity provisions for this cohort of staff. For example, where only 51% of grant-funded secretaries had paid sick leave previously, all those who have onboarded to the departments payroll now have access to paid sick leave entitlements.

I acknowledge that Fórsa are looking to future improvements for terms and conditions for secretaries and recognise that for them, public service status and access to a public service pension is understandably an important objective.

The issue of public service status is complex and needs to have regard to the state of the public finances and the repercussive effects of any such proposals for other grant-funded groups of non-public servants. For those reasons, any proposals must be considered in detail by my own officials and those in Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform as the granting or otherwise of public servant status is not within the scope of this Department.