Micheál Martin
Question:86 Mr. Martin asked the Minister for Education if she will give details of the agreement reached with IMPACT in respect of the gradings of post-primary school secretaries in the Dublin area. [8398/96]
Written Answers. - School Secretaries.
Micheál Martin
Question:87 Mr. Martin asked the Minister for Education the reason there is a discrepancy in the treatment of grading status of school secretaries in the Dublin area as opposed to school secretaries outside of Dublin. [8294/96]
Micheál Martin
Question:88 Mr. Martin asked the Minister for Education what consideration, if any, she is giving to reviewing the grading status of school secretaries; and if so, if she will make a statement on the matter. [8295/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 86, 87 and 88 together.
The agreement reached with IMPACT to which the Deputy refers was a settlement of a claim submitted by that trade union on behalf of school secretaries in County Dublin Vocational Education Committee schools. The claim was for the upgrading of posts of school secretaries and was processed through the conciliation and arbitration scheme for clerical and administrative grades of vocational education committees. The Departments of Education and Finance, the Irish Vocational Education Association and IMPACT, representing the parties to the scheme, agreed to have a job evaluation survey undertaken of these posts. In accordance with the recommendations of the report of that survey, which were accepted by the parties concerned, agreement was reached that Grade 3 secretaries in schools and colleges in County Dublin Vocational Education Committee with 40 wholetime teacher equivalents and over would be upgraded to Grade 4. The regarding was subject to revised job specifications appropriate to Grade 4 level being implemented for the post holders concerned.
In December, 1995 IMPACT submitted a claim for the regarding of school secretaries nationally. As agreed with the union, this falls to be processed under Clause 2 (iii) of Annex 1 of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work. As the claim is a matter for negotiation with the union concerned it would not be appropriate for me to comment further on any issue encompassed by the claim.