I am unaware of any difficulties caused to schools in respect of school secretaries on foot of Circular 3/00 and I would be surprised if this was the case.
At primary level my Department provides funding towards the cost of caretaking and secretarial services under two separate schemes. One scheme is the 1978-79 scheme for the employment of caretakers and clerical officers under which my Department meets the full cost of salary and employer's PRSI. However, this scheme has been superseded in the PESP Agreement of 1992 by a more extensive grant scheme.
The PESP scheme provides additional per-capita grants for primary schools towards secretarial and caretaking services. Circular 3/00 announced the extension of the PESP scheme to all schools with 100 pupils or more from January of this year at an increased grant rate of £40 per pupil. It also stated that, from January 2001, all primary schools that do not have a secretarial or caretaking service under the 1978-1979 schemes, would be grant aided under this scheme. I have recently decided that, the scheme will be extended to all such schools with effect from September 2000 and my Department will be issuing a further circular to schools in September to reflect this decision.
In relation to the Deputy's query regarding the withdrawal of community employment schemes from schools, the responsibility for the operation of such schemes in schools rests with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Officials of my Department are engaged in discussions with their counterparts in that Department regarding this issue. In general I can assure the Deputy that I am committed to the provision by my Department of additional assistance to schools for secretarial and caretaking services. The improvements to the PESP scheme that were outlined in Circular 3/00, and the fact that the funding allocated for this purpose has increased from £5.6 million in 1999 to approximately £12.2 million this year, and will further increase to approximately £16.8 million in 2001, are firm indications of my resolve in this area.
Finally the two schools referred to by the Deputy have the services of a shared secretary under my Department's 1978-79 scheme for the employment of school secretaries. I can confirm that there is no question of my Department reducing this service.
