Ms Hilary Murphy-Fagan:

The pensioners are not really affected by the finance shared service programme. We already provide payroll services to pensioners within our office as it is. To a large extent, it will be seamless to our pensioners and they will not see any difference. We currently pay our 60,000 pensioners. They have access to online payslips which they can access remotely from their homes or even if they are overseas. We write to them once or twice a year if there are any changes in relation to their payroll. The finance and accounting system is effectively the payment system to suppliers for goods and services to the Government and it also provides the Exchequer accounts and effectively the statement of the Exchequer. Our system will provide that in the future.