I propose to take Questions Nos. 21, 63, 95 and 195 together.
The number of staff whose salaries are met under my Department's schemes for the employment of clerical staff and caretakers is as follows:
Caretakers in national schools: 278.
Clerical staff in national and secondary schools: 490.
Of these staff, the salary costs of 29 caretakers and 33 clerical staff are met by the Department of Labour. The posts in question are ones which had fallen vacant between January 1983 and April 1985 and which it was decided to reinstate in conjunction with the introduction of the social employment scheme to schools.
Under successive Government embargoes on the filling of posts in the public service, staff who have resigned or retired since April 1985 have not been replaced; nor have any new appointments been approved. It is not open to me to make exceptions in individual cases.