Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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261. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if school secretaries will be given public service status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27701/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The school secretary is at the heart of the school and they are 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.

Since September 2023 my department has been providing a payroll service for former grant funded school secretaries. 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. These included a pay scale aligned with that of Grade III/CO in ETBs, improved annual leave entitlements, improved maternity provisions and paid sick leave in excess of the statutory requirement.

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.