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School Services Staff

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2019

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Ceisteanna (32)

Kathleen Funchion

Ceist:

32. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether the working conditions and pay of school secretaries should reflect the work they do in view of the role they play in the running of schools; his plans to support the improvement of working conditions for school secretaries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2767/19]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí ó Béal (5 píosaí cainte)

My question also relates to the working conditions and pay of school secretaries and if the Minister believes the pay and conditions should reflect the work done by school secretaries and the role they play in the running of schools, the Minister's plans to support the improvement of working conditions for school secretaries, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

We are in the same space as the previous question on this matter. I will pick out a couple of important elements of the answer but will not go over the whole thing again because I already have put it on record.

Schemes were initiated in 1978 and 1979 for the employment of clerical officers, and caretakers were included in that bundle. These schemes were withdrawn completely in 2008. On foot of a chairman’s note to the Lansdowne Road agreement, my Department engaged with the unions representing school secretaries and caretakers, including through an independent arbitration process in 2015. The arbitrator recommended a cumulative pay increase of 10% between 2016 and 2019 for staff and that a minimum hourly pay rate of €13 be phased in over that period. This arbitration agreement covers the period up to 31 December 2019. We are now at January 2019. My officials have advised me that the Workplace Relations Commission has not been in communication with the representative organisations yet. Obviously, with both Deputies raising the matter in the Chamber today I am sure that will happen sooner rather than later.

I thank the Minister. He will be aware of the Fórsa campaign to support the school secretaries. There is quite an active campaigner in the Minister's constituency who has been on to the Minister regularly. I know that nobody takes the service for granted but the school secretary really plays an integral role in the running of a school. They are the first point of contact for everybody and if there is any sort of an issue the school secretary is usually the first person to contact the parents, and vice versa if a parent needed to come into the school or if there is an emergency or for any sort of general day-to-day issues with the school. I believe we all agree that the person with whom one deals the most is the school secretary.

School secretaries have a huge workload, which is not limited to the daily tasks. They must also take on the task of dealing with parents and dealing with issues, some of which are very difficult. In certain cases there is a two-tier situation and in some schools there may be two secretaries with different working conditions. Some 10% are on the scheme where they are paid directly by the Department and the remaining 90% are paid through the ancillary grant. Obviously we cannot allow this situation to continue. We really need to recognise the vital role they play. Many schools would not survive without them. One would always know if the school secretary had been out for a few days because things can start to run behind a bit.

It is a very important issue and one that has run on for years. We met campaigners on the issue last week and some of them have been involved in the campaign for ten, 15 or 20 years.

Does the Minister agree it is extremely regrettable that in many cases, valuable people in a school such as school secretaries still must routinely go onto social welfare for the summer, Christmas and Easter holidays? They lose their income when the schools are not open. All Members, and especially those who are parents, have experience of the work school secretaries, who are largely women, do. These women have to go on the dole in those situations. Whatever about that happening ten or 20 years ago, it is not appropriate in an Ireland that has now recovered from some of the very difficult economic things that happened - as the Government keeps telling us. Would the Minister agree that he does not want to see any school secretary being forced to lose his or her job and go on the dole during summer, Christmas or Easter holidays and to have no status as an experienced worker, many of whom have given service to schools for decades, as we have heard at the Fórsa presentation?

Without going over what I said earlier, the figure of €8.65 per hour up to 2015 speaks for itself. To get to the rate of €13 per hour in January of this year cost an extra €22.5 million.

Deputy Burton mentioned that there is a break in their contracts in the summertime and that many of them may possibly end up working longer than that during the summer. We all know how committed these people are. The discussion is now being held in the correct place. It has been debated on many occasions in this House over many decades, but we now have industrial relations mechanisms in place and the Workplace Relations Commission's recommendations. Once we receive the invitation to be a part of those discussions, we will be happy to do that.

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