Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

My first reaction was to ensure that those who are entitled to increased wages are paid those wages as soon as possible. As the Deputy is aware, a substantial process of negotiation and discussion took place before agreement was reached on the payments. It was agreed by all the stakeholders in the agreement that those who are on the direct payroll should be paid immediately. Unfortunately, information about the system that applied to part-time teachers, including resource teachers, in primary schools, was not available on the Department's database. Under the system that was used, the Department paid two moieties to each school. The board of management of each school paid each part-time teacher directly. We have started to obtain all the relevant information. It is not as easy as it sounds because some teachers work in a number of different schools. The collation of this information is difficult and time-consuming. We want to be as fair to everybody as we can. We have made contact with all the schools to ask them to supply the information. We are satisfied that the new payroll system will be up and running quite soon. We will then be in a position to make the outstanding payments, even if that is happening belatedly.

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