STORM TRACKER: Follow 'Storm Amy' as it bears down on Ireland amid brutal forecast
Search
05 Sept 2025
Search
05 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
'Integral part of school communities' - Fórsa accepts pay increase for school secretaries
Trade union Fórsa has accepted improved pay and conditions for grant-funded school secretaries across Ireland.
The Department of Education's offer received overwhelming endorsement by secretaries, 95% of whom voted in favour of the changes.
It comes following engagement between the Department, school management bodies and Fórsa.
Minister for Education Norma Foley and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath commented yesterday (March 23) on the new measures, with Minister Foley calling secretaries "an integral part of school communities".
She said, "Resolving this issue has been a priority for me since my appointment and today’s ballot result is an overwhelming endorsement by school secretaries of the package offered by the department. I am pleased that today’s ballot will provide further recognition of the excellent work carried out by school secretaries on a daily basis."
School secretaries’ pay rates will now move to a scale aligned with the Clerical Officer Grade III pay scale on a pro-rata basis, in accordance with a secretary’s current working pattern.
Ministers @NormaFoleyTD1 and @mmcgrathtd welcome acceptance by Forsa of offer of improved pay and conditions - https://t.co/V7SoDga9af
— Department of Education (@Education_Ire) March 23, 2022
These pay increases will be backdated to September 1 2021, with lower-paid but longer serving secretaries to be placed higher up the salary scale.
Secretaries will no longer need to apply to the Department of Social Protection for payment of benefits for periods they are not working (such as school holidays), and an allocation of 22 days annual leave has also been proposed.
Minister McGrath said he was "pleased" secretaries voted in favour of the agreement.
He said, "I have been supportive of seeing a resolution to the issue for some time, particularly due to the vital services being provided by secretaries throughout the country and supporting the day to day activities of schools."
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
