Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

Nearly, but not quite. We accept that overpayments will always occur for certain reasons, but we are seeking to minimise their extent. They can be generated by both external factors, outside the control of the Department, and by internal factors. A typical example of an external factor would involve data submitted by managerial authorities. This Department acts as a paymaster on behalf of managerial authorities of over 3,700 schools. They have voluntary boards of management so we are dependent on them submitting the data required at the right time and so on. There are issues there. For example, if a person is no longer employed and a school is no longer in receipt of an acting up allowance, we need to be told on time and there can be a slowness there. Another example of overpayments that have occurred in recent years is when there have been major policy changes with insufficient time being allocated for the implementation of policy decisions. There is a range of different factors.

In terms of internal ones, not just to blame external factors, there could have been a payment of salary on the incorrect point on a scale, payment of an incorrect allowance and of course there could human error.