Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 February 2021
438. Deputy Martin Browne asked the Minister for Education the estimated cost of permitting schools with enrolments of 535 to 730 to fill secretary vacancies providing they have fewer than three posts and schools with enrolments of 685 to 800 providing that they have fewer than four posts. [9778/21]
View answerMy Department provides funding for Secretary posts in the Community, Comprehensive and Education and Training Board Sectors.
A recruitment moratorium was introduced in the Public Service in 2009 which applied to these posts.
At that time alleviation measures were put in place which permitted schools to fill Clerical Officer vacancies so as to maintain staffing levels at a maximum 1 Clerical Officer per school.
My Department acknowledged the administrative burden on schools particularly for larger schools and introduced further alleviation measures in 2019 for those with enrolments of 700 and more to allow them employ and additional Clerical Officer up to a maximum of 2.
Funding was provided as part of Budget 2020 to continue these alleviation measures for the 2020/21 school year.
This funding provides for the further relaxation of the moratorium in the case of Clerical Officers and permits schools with enrolments of 500 – 625 to fill Clerical Officer vacancies provided they have less than 1.5 and those with enrolments of 626 – 699 to fill Clerical Officer vacancies provided they have less than 2.
The estimated full year cost of permitting ETB, Community and Comprehensive schools to fill further Secretary vacancies in addition to those above is included in the table below.
|
Enrolments |
Vacancies to be filled provided school has less than |
Estimated full year cost € |
|
535-730 |
3 Posts |
3.8m |
|
>535 |
3 Posts |
7.3m |
|
685 – 800 |
4 Posts |
2.5m |
|
>685 |
4 Posts |
8.2m |
The estimated cost of filling vacancies in schools with enrolments of greater than 535 and 685 have been included in the table above as these schools are currently permitted to fill Secretary vacancies providing they have no more than 1.5 or 2 posts. This additional information may be of interest to the Deputy.
