asked the Minister for Education if he will streamline the unnecessary monthly procedure for teaching staffs in secondary schools of being obliged to complete a personal statement including name, address, absences, reasons for these absences, whether married, registration number and so on; and why this fundamentally repetitious and administratively costly exercise is necessary.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Secondary School Staff Procedures.
7.
The "monthly procedure" to which the Deputy refers is the submission by recognised teachers in every secondary school each month of an application on the prescribed form, countersigned by the manager of the school, for the payment of incremental salary by my Department.
Such an application is required in accordance with the "Rules for the Payment of Incremental Salary to Secondary Teachers" and is necessary to ensure that incremental salary is correctly and properly paid in conformity with the rules and in accordance with good accounting procedures.
The Minister has not really got the point of the question. Would he explain why the rules are as they are? I appreciate that the signing is necessary to accord with the rules. Why are the rules such as to have a position where a staff of, for instance, 40 people, are obliged to state semipublicly—we could call a meeting of 40 people a semi-public one—not alone if they have been in attendance but the nature of their illnesses, if they are married, what their registration numbers are every month? I submit that it is administratively very expensive and unnecessary. Would the Minister not reconsider it?
Asking for his salary used to be one of the most pleasant tasks a teacher had to perform. I would like to point out to the Deputy that the nature of a person's illness is not stated on the form. There is no necessity to state the nature of the teacher's illness. It is a complicated form but the Deputy may remember that it was an even more complicated form and has been simplified in the not-too-distant past.
The degrees of dissatisfaction are not important. Does the Minister not think in this day and age that this type of out-of-date procedure is no longer necessary? Why is it that the secondary teacher staff are singled out for this particular treatment when no other area of the public service have to fulfil a similar type of function?
In this day and age proper accounting procedures are necessary. The Deputy is as well aware as I am that the secondary scheme is quite different in that the school is the employer of the teacher. The actual statement goes to the Department from the employer of the teacher. There are technicalities involved in it, as the Deputy well knows.
The Minister has no desire to look, or interest in looking at the possibility of simplifying what must be a very costly job every month.
Desire and interest are two very strong words. I would like to simplify the procedures. If the Deputy has any suggestions as to how they could be simplified I would like to hear from him.
Has the Minister no suggestions?
No.