Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Feb 2000

Vol. 513 No. 6

Written Answers. - School Staffing.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

405 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science if each of the national agreements since 1987 apply to school caretakers and secretaries; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that, as employers, many schools have been unable to meet their obligations under these agreements; the role, if any, his Department has in policing these agreements; and the steps, if any, he will take within her Department's area of responsibility to ensure that this injustice is addressed. [3230/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

My Department provides funding towards the cost of secretarial and caretaking services in primary and secondary schools under two separate schemes. One scheme is the 1978-79 scheme for the employment of school secretaries and caretakers in primary and secondary schools, under which my Department meets the full cost of salary. This would of course include any pay increases that apply to these school secretaries and caretakers under the national agreements. This scheme is, however, being phased out, as posts become vacant.

Arising from the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, a second scheme was introduced in 1992 whereby my Department provides additional per capita grants for primary and secondary schools towards the cost of secretarial and caretaking services. These grants are paid as additions to the standard per capita grants. This scheme does not provide for the linking of the additional per capita grants to any particular pay scale. The scheme, by its nature, is flexible and gives boards of management discretion as to the manner in which secretarial and caretaking services are provided. Secretaries and caretakers employed by schools are employees of the individual schools and my Department does not have any role in determining the pay and conditions under which they are employed. The question of the application of the national agreements in these cases is a matter to be resolved between the management authorities of the schools and the employees.

Since its introduction in 1992, the scheme of additional per capita grants to schools in respect of secretarial and caretaking services has been expanded in line with undertakings given in the PESP. With effect from January of this year, all primary schools with 100 or more pupils have become eligible for a grant towards secretarial and caretaking services under this scheme. Costing £2.7 million, this improvement of the scheme will benefit approximately 650 schools serving 90,000 pupils. My Department is currently making arrangements for the issue of these grants to schools.

An additional £9 million has recently been secured which will enable me to extend and improve the supports available to all primary schools over the next two years. Details of the implementation of this will be worked out in the near future following consultations and will, when taken together with the earlier move, make a major contribution to assisting schools in providing for secretarial and caretaking assistance.

At second level, voluntary secondary schools with 200 or more pupils receive aper capita grant of £30 subject to a maximum of £10,500 per annum towards the provision of secretarial services and a grant of £25 per pupil to a maximum of £8,750 in respect of caretaking assistance. Financial allocations for 2000 are currently being finalised and existing provision for secretarial and caretaking services is being reviewed in this context. The terms and conditions including pay scales for secretaries and caretakers employed in the community and comprehensive and VEC school sectors are determined centrally. Personnel in these sectors also receive increases agreed under the various pay agreements.

I wish to assure the Deputy that my Department is aware of the needs of schools in relation to secretarial and caretaking services and I am committed to improving existing provision this year and in future years in the budgetary context and in light of available resources.