I raise again the issue of school secretaries and caretakers. As the Minister knows, they have made a request for full public sector recognition and status. The Minister will agree school secretaries and caretakers play an integral role in the life of the school community and when many of us politicians visit these schools we always recognise secretaries and caretakers and the role they play along with teachers, SNAs, school management and so on. They deserve full status in terms of public service recognition, terms and conditions, pension entitlements, set pay scales and so on. This is a critical issue. It is about recognising the invaluable work they do in schools. I ask the Minister to please take this message back. The Government needs to address this issue and deal with it once and for all.

I thank the Deputy for raising that issue. I agree school secretaries and caretakers play an absolutely essential and invaluable role in schools. Many of us know schools that simply could not operate without the school secretary or indeed the caretaker. I note the assimilation of school secretaries to a payroll administered by the Department has provided significant benefits where pay and access to leave are concerned. I note what the Deputy stated about the further requests from school secretaries and caretakers and I will raise that with the Minister for education, Deputy McEntee.