School secretaries and caretakers, as we have all agreed in this House, are very valued members of our school communities. I am fully aware of the vitally important role played by them in the running of our schools. I fully support, as does everyone, this important agreement which will improve their terms and conditions, and rightly so. The majority of primary and post-primary schools receive assistance to provide for secretarial services under grant schemes. Where a school employs a staff member to support those functions, that staff member is an employee of the school and responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school.

Fórsa tabled a claim in 2019 seeking parity of these staff with education and training board, ETB, public service staff. Extensive engagement has taken place since then between the Department, school management bodies and Fórsa to work towards a resolution, with the support of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. On 24 February this year, following a series of engagements at the WRC, a suite of measures designed to improve the working conditions of school secretaries was proposed, which Fórsa agreed to recommend to its members. As the Deputy indicated, a ballot was undertaken, the result of which was 95% agreement in favour of the deal.  I was very pleased with this overwhelmingly positive result on this long-running issue, the resolution of which has been a priority for me since my appointment.

The work to implement this agreement has now commenced in conjunction with Fórsa. It requires a complex process of assimilating information to capture accurate data in respect of each individual secretary. Additional resources are in place to provide capacity to manage this process to ensure both individual and school data are captured and correctly applied. This will also require the development of an IT system to collect the data and action the payroll obligations.  As this work is currently ongoing, it is not possible to commit to an exact timeline, but the Department has expedited the process and will communicate further as the work progresses.

The Department has issued a circular to schools to outline how the agreement will be implemented. The circular outlines that as a first phase of implementation of the agreement, schools must, before the end of September, calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement for secretaries and offer it to them. Should the secretary choose to move to the new terms, the new pay rate should be applied by the school from 1 September 2022. The verification of this first phase, the calculation of back pay and the option to have the value of jobseeker's benefit included in pay will be addressed in the second phase of the assimilation process.

It is clear from the Minister's response that none of the school secretaries will be included for this summer. At the earliest, they might be included by the Christmas holidays but it will more than likely be Easter or summer of next year. That is disappointing. While I know significant work is required, surely it is possible to start moving people to the scheme, even at this early stage. The Department has known about this for some time and the secretaries are in place. The information should be readily available. Given that 95% of school secretaries endorsed this decision and there is strong support for it among the workforce, it must be very disappointing for them to see it will be next year at the earliest before they can qualify. I ask that the Department expedite the work to ensure this happens quicker. Based on the dates the Minister has given, according to which the initial stage is to be undertaken by the end of September, nothing will happen before then. Is that correct?

I have worked long enough in the sector to know that this had to be a priority for delivery. I was very pleased with the endorsement of the proposal in a ballot in which 95% of school secretaries voted in favour of the deal. However, I will be upfront and honest that there is a considerable body of work involved here. Each secretary is employed by the relevant school board of management. The work has commenced in conjunction with Fórsa. It is a complex process of assimilation of information in order that accurate data with regard to each individual secretary are captured. The additional resources that have been required have been put in place by the Department. The work also involves setting up an entirely new IT system to collect the data and that is ongoing. Circulars have issued to schools. Before the end of September, schools must calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement for secretaries and offer those to them. My point is that there is a considerable body of work involved.

The point is also that it is unlikely that anybody will be moved on to this new system before this time next year. That is the reality. It is disappointing for the school secretaries who have been waiting so long for this to happen. I know that each secretary is employed by the individual school but I also know the Department was probably aware of which schools had or did not have secretaries. Much of that information is within the Department. While it may have been available on an ad hoc basis or may not have been in a format that would have allowed this to proceed, much of the necessary work could have been done. I hope the matter continues to receive priority because it would be very disappointing if the timescale were to slip any further. I hope the Minister will ensure it is made a priority over the coming year to ensure it is implemented by next summer at the latest.

I assure the Deputy that absolute priority has been given to this matter. As I outlined, the individual case for each of the secretaries is not just a matter of acknowledging that there are secretaries in each of the schools. It is also a matter of gathering the individual data for each of the secretaries in terms of his or her service. That is a body of work and we are giving absolute priority to it. The complex process has already begun. The resources that are required from my Department have been put in place. The new IT system that will be needed to manage the process is being put in place. I acknowledge the work schools will do before the end of September in calculating the initial assimilation rate of pay and the annual leave entitlement for secretaries. They will then offer it to secretaries and secretaries will respond. I do not, for one minute, underestimate the value or importance of this work. We will expedite it as much as we possibly can.