Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funding is available for caretaking and facilities management of a new school (details supplied). [40093/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Ancillary Services Grant is payable to recognised primary schools and special schools in the Free Education Scheme. The grant is intended to cater for the cost of employing Secretarial and Caretaking staff. It is up to the Board of Management to allocate this funding as per their priorities. As per Circular 0040/2009 the capitation grant provided for general running costs and the ancillary services grant provided for Secretarial and Caretaking services may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.

After Fórsa accepted the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement about salaries and leave for grant-funded school secretaries, the secretaries who accepted the agreement were added to the Department of Education’s payroll from September 2023. Because of this, the ancillary-related grant funding has been updated, since schools are no longer paying these salaries directly.

Since the 2023/24 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary grant amount, minus the amount that schools previously paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools provided the Department with these details and this information is now being used to reduce the ancillary-related grant funding. Schools should be in no way disadvantaged by this, as the grant is reduced only by the amount they previously paid to their secretaries.

To date we have issued correspondence to schools with details of the arrangements for: September to December 2023, January to August 2024, September to December 2024 and January to August 2025.

In some situations, the salaries of ancillary staff in a particular school may have been higher than the ancillary grant due to the school, and the school may have funded this difference via other revenue streams. In situations where the salary that a school was paying their secretary was higher than the ancillary grant due to the school, prior to them being added to the Department of Education’s payroll, then the ancillary grant is reduced to nil. This should not impact the school’s financial position.

The rate of ancillary services grant has not decreased and continues to be paid based on the relevant enrolments in the school multiplied by the rates set out in Circular 0017/2021.

Work is ongoing to identify a method of standardising the reduction to the ancillary-related grants for the longer term where school secretaries are being paid on the Department’s payroll. The current reductions may vary when a permanent model for ancillary-related grant reductions has been finalised.

The Department is currently working on developing a formal model for the allocation of secretary posts other than Department-sanctioned secretaries in Community and Comprehensive schools and those employed under the 1978/1979 scheme, informed by data analysis, with a view to standardising grant payments and allocations of posts in a fair and equitable manner. Analysis of data to inform proposals on modifications to grant payments and allocation of posts across the school system as a result of school secretaries moving on to the Department’s payroll is nearing completion. It is intended that these arrangements will be as reasonable and as fair as possible for all schools. The Department will consult with education partners as part of this process.

Schools seeking additional secretarial resources or who wish to employ a secretary for the first time are in the interim considered on a cases-by-case basis.

The Department is providing a payroll service for school secretaries with effect from 1st September 2023. As of June 2025, there are 3,223 secretaries on payroll that benefited from the WRC agreement.

As part of a package agreed with Fórsa, the trade union representing school secretaries and caretakers, following a series of engagements at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in 2022, the implementation of revised salary and annual leave entitlements for school secretaries, under circular 0036/2022 is now fully operational.

Lessons learned from that process are now playing a key role in the drafting and implementation of a similar deal to be offered to grant funded school caretakers.

The Department is committed to ensuring that school caretakers will be afforded the opportunity to avail of a similar package to that which was accepted by school secretaries in the near future. As the deal to be offered to caretakers, when agreed, will be similar to that implemented for school secretaries, it is not currently anticipated that the granting of public servant status, and the entitlements which arise therefrom, will form part of the proposal.

The Department of Education is not the direct employer of former grant funded school secretaries, but rather has been providing a payroll service for this cohort of secretaries with effect from 1st September 2023.

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 and Reform, and the relevant unions.

The practice of paying for caretaking services under grant schemes continues whilst work is ongoing to agree a similar package to that achieved for school secretaries.