Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has appealed to the Ministers for Education and Social Protection Joe McHugh and Regina Doherty to ensure that school secretaries and other staff such as cleaners and caretakers who are paid through grants are not left in limbo during the school closures.

Teachta Crowe said:

“I have had numerous calls to my office by school secretaries and other workers in schools who are paid through grants. Under the current system, these workers have to sign on during the summer and other holidays, such as Easter. With the Easter holidays approaching and the schools closed for the foreseeable future, they cannot receive the proper documentation that they need to sign on the dole to ensure that they continue to be paid.

“Our school secretaries have had to fight for what little they have and I for one think that is not nearly enough. I am appealing to the Ministers to make sure that these workers are not allowed to fall through the cracks during this time when schools are closed to them.

“These grant paid secretaries and other school workers like cleaners are not paid during holidays and have to sign on for job seekers during school breaks because of the current system.

“They need their school principals to sign off on this with various other criteria like a school stamp needed on accompanying documentation.

“However, with schools not open and school principals not on site, this inevitably will cause problems. I am calling Education Minister Joe Mc Hugh and Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty to take a sensible approach, resolve this issue, and waive these rules for grant aided school secretaries during the current Covid-19 crisis.”