Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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300. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide the annual additional cost of providing pensions parity to school secretaries and caretakers, in line with the demands of a union (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27210/25]

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

The Department is committed to ensuring that school caretakers will be afforded the opportunity to avail of a similar package in the near future. As there are obvious differences between the roles of school secretaries and school caretakers, a detailed survey was undertaken to inform my officials understanding of the current working patterns as well as terms and conditions of work for school caretakers, and the analysis of the survey results is nearing completion.

I acknowledge that Forsa are looking to further improve terms and conditions for secretaries and caretakers and recognise that for them, public service status and access to a public service pension is understandably an important objective. Regarding the cost of pension parity this would require a detailed analysis of all the relevant information on secretaries and caretakers, some of which is currently not readily available to the Department.

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 would further detailed consideration. For that 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.