Liz McManus
Ceist:74 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Education and Science his policy on whether school secretaries and caretakers should be paid directly by his Department. [17127/01]
Written Answers. - School Services Staff.
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 salaries. While these posts are fully funded by my Department, the secretaries and caretakers involved are employees of the individual school authorities. This scheme is being phased out as posts become vacant and no new posts are being created. It has been superseded in the PESP agreement of 1992 by a more extensive grant scheme.
The PESP scheme provides additionalper capita grants for primary and secondary schools towards secretarial and caretaking services. These grants are paid as additions to the standard per capita grants. The scheme, by its nature, is flexible and affords boards of management discretion as to the manner in which secretarial and caretaking services are provided. I do not consider that it should be replaced by a scheme of direct payment by my Department.
At primary level, I increased the grant rates 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 fewer.
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, was increased in 2000 to approximately £12.2 million and will be further increased this year to approximately £16.8 million.
At second level, in addition to the funding arrangements outlined, 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.