Will the Tánaiste update the House on the ongoing dispute over pay and conditions for school secretaries and caretakers? I was delighted to see the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, announcing that good progress had been made in recent days. This is a priority for me. Many of these staff members are the lifeblood of school communities and the glue that keeps schools together. They need to be treated with the same respect and dignity as their colleagues.

The Government is very much aware of the role played by school secretaries and caretakers in the school community and recognises the important work done by these staff and other support staff in the running of our schools. There have been intensive discussions at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, which is an office of my Department, and a great deal of progress has been made in recent days on the long-running industrial dispute over pay and conditions for school secretaries who are outside the education and training board, ETB, sector. The parties engaged further at the WRC on 13 September. The Department, subject to agreement on all elements of the claim, offered to align school secretaries' pay rates with that of clerical officer grade III in ETBs, with an effective implementation date for these new pay arrangements of 1 September. It would be retrospective for a few days at least in that regard. This would mean that they would be on the payroll for the full year and would not have to sign on and off over the summer as they do now, which is unsatisfactory.

The national day of action has been deferred and all parties will resume intensive talks. Hopefully, we will be able to agree a final package soon.