Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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413. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of plans to add school caretakers to her Department's payroll; the timeline for the implementation of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37401/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Caretakers are valued members of our school communities who carry out work vital to the operations of our schools. At present, the majority of primary and post-primary schools receive assistance to provide for caretaker services under ancillary grant funding. The Department of Education and Youth is committed to ensuring that school caretakers will be afforded the opportunity to avail of a package similar to that which was agreed for school secretaries in February 2022 and subsequently implemented under Circular 0036/2022.

The implementation of revised salary and leave entitlements for school secretaries is now fully operational, and lessons learned from that process are playing a key role in the development of the deal to be offered to grant funded school caretakers. 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. In parallel with this, the Department are actively in communication with Fórsa on this important issue and regular bilateral meetings are occurring.

In the normal course, there are ongoing discussions with the public service unions on any and all matters relating to pay agreements. Any review of changes to the employment of school caretakers or other pay mechanisms, can occur only under those processes and any such proposals would need to be considered in detail by the Department, the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and the relevant unions.