I urge the Government to support calls for pension parity in our schools. The current lack of parity is adversely affecting our school secretaries and caretakers. All parents and caregivers know the vital role our school secretaries play in schools.

In the school I worked in as a SNA, our secretary is known by pupils and staff alike as Super Sue because she, like all school secretaries I know, including Nuala and Mary as well as Bernie in Kildavin are at the centre of the smooth running of a school. Likewise, caretakers like Johnny, Pat and Dick in Ballon, keep our school grounds and buildings safe and secure and are often the unseen workers in schools, as the nature of their work is often behind the scenes, but they are also critical members of school staff and deserve to be remunerated as such. Our schools would not function without secretaries and caretakers. Will the Tánaiste please support the calls from schools to give pension parity to school secretaries and school caretakers?

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I join with her in commending the fabulous work by our secretaries and caretakers in our schools. I had the opportunity last week to meet many of them at the Fórsa conference as part of the overall Easter conferences. We have made a lot of progress, notably in changing the way our secretaries are paid so they are now paid through the Department of Education. We are hoping to make similar progress for our caretakers. The next step, and the next request from our secretaries, is that there would be pension parity along with those changes. That is engagement that will have to happen as part of an overall engagement with the Department of public expenditure and reform. That engagement is ongoing through my Department with the Department of public expenditure and reform. We will engage with our secretaries and caretakers through their representative organisation as well. They are an integral part of our schools and it is really important that we support them in every way we can.