Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

We can check and we can get back to the Deputy.

The nature of overpayments arises for a number of reasons. There can be a number of external factors and other factors involved. We are a paymaster on behalf of managerial authorities for more than 3,700 schools, which have voluntary boards of management, and we are dependent on them submitting the data required for the appointment of staff. The closing date for entry to the payroll is ten days in advance of payment. This is to allow time for checking and so on. Issues can occur that give rise to errors in payment, which then can give rise to changes being needed. Overpayments occur due to the insufficient time being allocated for the implementation of new budget decisions and issues such as that. There can also be internal factors such as the payment of salary at the incorrect point on the salary scale, human error or incorrect allowance.

We recoup overpayments in a number of ways. There is repayment by deduction from salary or pension, repayment by arranging a transfer directly, repayment in part by lump sum and balanced by deduction instalments and a range of other ways. Following the recovery, the overpayment of funds are then lodged with the Department. We have sanction to write off a number of overpayments for different reasons as well. Given the scale of our operation, we have a large-scale number of overpayments, and that is what arises but it is very small in the context of the overall budgetary expenditure. As of 31 December 2019, the outstanding overpayments as a percentage of overall 2019 expenditure was 0.11%.