Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has once again appealed to the caretaker Ministers for Education and Social Protection Joe Mc Hugh and Regina Doherty to ensure that school secretaries and other staff such as cleaners, caretakers and bus escort workers who travel with children that have special needs, and paid through grants are taken into consideration during the school closures.

Deputy Crowe’s call comes as hundreds of workers have been forced to travel to their schools to receive the necessary stamps and forms to ensure they continue to be paid over the Easter break.

Teachta Crowe said:

“I spoke earlier in the week about calls from workers who were worried about having to travel to schools to receive the documentation they require to get paid during the Easter break.

“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 schools closed for the foreseeable future, they have to receive officially stamped documentation from a school principal in order to sign on the dole and ensure that they continue to be paid.

“These grant paid secretaries and other school workers like cleaners, caretakers, and bus escort workers are not paid during holidays and have to sign on for job seekers during school breaks under the current system.

“They need their school principals to sign off on this with various other criteria like a school stamp needed on the accompanying documentation. I had asked that this red tape be bypassed during COVID-19 crisis in order to stop this person to person contact.

“Today was a missed opportunity by Government to waive these requirements and put the safety, health and peace of mind of these workers first.

“However, with schools looking increasingly unlikely to reopen during the Summer holidays in May, I am again calling on Education Minister Joe Mc Hugh and Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty to do the right thing, take a sensible approach, resolve this issue, and waive these rules for grant paid school secretaries and other staff during the current COVID-19 crisis.”