Peadar Tóibín
Question:402. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will return the position of full-time caretaker to a school (details supplied). [16209/26]
View answerTuesday, 3 March 2026
Questions (402)
Written answers
The Ancillary Services Grant is payable to recognised primary schools and special schools in the Free Education Scheme that have not been provided with secretarial or caretaking assistance under the 1978/1979 schemes. The 1978/1979 schemes allowed for certain schools to receive the benefit of a full-time secretary or caretaker whose salary is fully funded by the Department. Where schools are already benefiting from the services of a full-time secretary and/or caretaker under the 1978/1979 schemes, they will not be entitled to receive grant assistance under the ancillary services grant scheme in respect of that service.
The ancillary grant is intended to cater for the cost of employing Secretarial and Caretaking staff. It is up to the BOM to allocate this funding as per their priorities. As per Circular 0040/2009 the capitation grant provided for general running costs and the ancillary services grant provided for Secretarial and Caretaking services may be regarded as a common grant from which the Board of Management can allocate according to its own priorities.
After Fórsa accepted the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement about salaries and leave for grant-funded school secretaries, the secretaries who accepted the agreement were added to the Department of Education’s payroll from September 2023. Because of this, the ancillary-related grant funding has been updated since schools are no longer paying these salaries directly.
Since the 2023/24 school year, schools have been paid the usual ancillary grant amount, minus the amount that schools previously paid to grant-funded secretaries prior to their acceptance of the new terms and conditions. Schools provided the Department with these details, and this information is now being used to reduce the ancillary-related grant funding. Schools should be in no way disadvantaged by this, as the grant is reduced only by the amount they previously paid to their secretaries.
To date we have issued correspondence to schools with details of the arrangements for each interim period since September 2023.
In some situations, the salaries of ancillary staff in a particular school may have been higher than the ancillary grant due to the school, and the school may have funded this difference via other revenue streams. In situations where the salary that a school was paying their secretary was higher than the ancillary grant due to the school, prior to them being added to the Department of Education’s payroll, then the ancillary grant is reduced to NIL.
In the case of St Anne's, the caretaker was under the 1978/1979 scheme, and the school had a full-time secretary for which the school was in receipt of the reduced rate of ancillary grant of 89.50 per pupil. On retirement of the caretaker, the 1978/79 scheme has been discontinued. however, the ancillary grant for the school will be increased to the full rate of 173 per pupil.
Officials from the Department have been engaging with the school on this issue. A review of the ancillary funding to this school has been carried out. The school has been advised of the outcome of this review directly. With effect from the 28th of September 2025 which is the retirement date of the 1978/1979 Caretaker the school will be entitled to the full rate of ancillary less the salary of the secretary.
The rate of ancillary services grant has not decreased and continues to be paid based on the relevant enrolments in the school multiplied by the rates set out in?Circular 0017/2021.
Work is ongoing to identify a method of standardising the reduction to the ancillary-related grants for the longer term where school secretaries are being paid on the Department’s payroll. Note the reductions may change when a permanent model for ancillary-related grant reductions has been finalised.
The Financial Support Services Unit (FSSU), funded by the Department, is an important source of advice and support to schools on financial matters, including budgeting and cash-flow management. Any schools that are experiencing financial difficulty can contact the FSSU for guidance and support. Contact details for FSSU can be found on www.fssu.ie.