I am aware of requests by voluntary secondary schools for increased funding. As the Deputy will be aware, the funding arrangements for our schools have evolved in an ad hoc manner and reflect the sectoral division of our second level system. My Department provides funding towards the cost of secretarial assistance in secondary schools under two separate schemes. One scheme is the 1978-79 scheme for the employment of school secretaries under which my Department meets the full cost of salary. This scheme is being phased out as posts become vacant. It has been superseded in the PESP agreement of 1992 by a more extensive grant scheme.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 and secondary schools towards secretarial 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 is flexible and gives boards of management discretion as to the manner in which secretarial services are provided. Secretaries 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.
I have already made clear in the House that I consider that the report of the steering group on the funding of second level schools represents a comprehensive review of the funding arrangements of post primary schools and is a valuable document in both its analysis and clarity of approach. The recommendations made in the steering group's report for the future funding arrangements of second level schools are under continuing review. At the core of the recommendations made for future funding arrangements are the principles of equity of treatment, transparency of funding structures and adequacy of funding levels.
