School Staff
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West

I concur with everything the Deputy has said there. I met with the school secretaries and caretakers in my own constituency at the time. I know many of them. They are very familiar to me. They do not take going out on protests lightly. They did not want to be there. I heard that loud and clear and I recognise that a comparable pension entitlement and enhanced terms and conditions are, understandably, important objectives for our secretaries and caretakers. That is why my Department has been engaging with Fórsa over the past number of months under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court with the support and input of the Department of public expenditure and reform. Parties remain in that process and my Department remains committed to reaching a resolution on all these matters. As with any industrial relations process, I cannot comment on it.
By way of background, the Deputy may be aware an agreement was reached in 2022 that provided for the assimilation of school secretaries to a payroll administered by my Department, which has provided significant benefits in respect of pay and access to leave. We are committed to ensuring that grant-funded school caretakers will be afforded the opportunity to avail of an agreement similar to that offered to grant-funded school secretaries.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28