Eamon Gilmore
Question:68 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education the number of schools which have secretaries and caretakers paid by his Department at each level; and the proportion of schools this number represents.
Written Answers. - School Secretaries and Caretakers.
In the case of primary and secondary schools, the normal source of State funding, other than for teachers' salaries is the annual capitation grant. This grant is used towards recurrent costs including cost related to secretarial and caretaking services. The Department does not have information on the number of schools which provide for such services in this way.
Under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, the capitation grant is being augmented on a phased basis, which has begun this year, to assist schools expand their provision in this area. This will benefit 175 schools (4 percent) in the current year.
In addition, there are also grant schemes specifically for the purposes of employing secretaries and caretakers. The capitation grant will increasingly augment and ultimately improve the present grant scheme. Under this latter scheme, currently 371 (11 per cent) of primary schools and 269 (56 per cent) of secondary schools have secretaries and 358 (10.6 per cent) of primary schools have caretakers.
In the case of vocational schools, arrangements for caretaking and secretarial services are a matter for the appropriate vocational education committee within their annual staffing and financial allocations. All, or virtually all, vocational schools are provided with caretaking or secretarial services. All community and comprehensive schools have secretaries and caretakers.