Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

First, it is important in describing the system to indicate the extent to which it is not similar to other Departments and agencies. We have the biggest payroll in the State. We have approximately 95,000 people paid on the payroll - post-primary teachers in secondary, community and comprehensive schools, primary teachers, non-teaching staff in those schools, retired teachers and non-teaching staff. We have more than 2.4 million transactions per annum.

One of the particular complexities of the nature of our payroll system is that we deal with payments to part-time and substitute teachers. That means that in any two week period we have 10,000 teachers coming off and on to the payroll. We have a wide range of finishers and starters in any two week period, which is relatively unique in the context of the public sector. The payroll service relates to all of those schools. We are not technically the employer but we operate a payroll service.

We have an online claim system which deals with all of the substitute claims, which is a particularly complex element. There are not only a single set of pay arrangements in place. Different arrangements are in place for teachers depending on whether they are casually employed, non-casually employed or permanently employed. Each category has different rates of pay and also each of them works up service towards incremental credit in a different way. We have a complicated system in that sense. With the changes being introduced in the budget from December 2010, starting in 2011, rather than the payroll itself, we had to look first at the issues surrounding whether someone was a new starter. There were various complexities in that regard. We had to consult in detail with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and we had to issue a circular to the sector so that the change could be explained.