Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 31 May 2001

Vol. 537 No. 4

Written Answers. - School Staffing.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

177 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education and Science his intentions in respect of secretarial and caretaking services in primary and secondary schools; and the timescale for the implementation of these proposals. [16473/01]

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 in primary and secondary schools, and caretakers in primary schools, under which my Department meets the full cost of salary. However, this scheme is being phased out as posts become vacant and no new posts are created. It has been superseded in the PESP agreement of 1992 by a more extensive grant scheme.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 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.

At primary level, I increased the rates of grant by 33% from £30 per pupil to £40 per pupil with effect from January 2000. Furthermore, with effect from September 2000, I extended the scheme to all primary schools. In addition, I have set a minimum grant of £2,400 per annum which is payable to all schools with 60 pupils or less. These improvements mean that for the first time all primary schools now qualify for an annual grant to assist them with the provision of secretarial and caretaking services. The Government's commitment in this regard can also be measured by the fact that the funding allocated for this purpose, which was approximately £5.6 million in 1999, increased in 2000 to approximately £12.2 million and will further increase this year to approximately £16.8 million.

At second level, in addition to the funding arrangements outlined above, schools now receive additional annual funding of £20 per pupil, with a minimum payment of £4,000 per school under the school services support fund. This fund will channel an additional £7 million to second level schools each year. Provision for secretarial and caretaking support is a particular focus of this fund. The introduction of this additional annual funding is a significant contribution towards enabling schools to meet their commitments.

Furthermore, officials from my Department are currently in discussions with their counterparts in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment regarding the phasing out of community employment schemes in schools. These discussions are aimed at ensuring that as CE schemes in schools are phased out, funding equivalent to the amount spent on such schemes would be made available to my Department, thereby ensuring an equitable and uniform system of funding for such services.