Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Education has spent over €10 million in six years posting payslips. This figure does not even account for printing. Optional digital payslips were introduced last year but there has not been a really high take-up, and that is because it is on an opt-in rather than an opt-out basis. Posting payslips is totally out of touch with society and out of kilter with how most people are paid and it is not environmentally friendly. We are all aware postage prices have increased - in fact, they have doubled in almost three years - and despite this, over 100,000 people in the Department of Education are still getting payslips in the post. Meanwhile, in my constituency we are facing a school places crisis, school buildings are waiting for the go-ahead for extensions and new builds - Sadhbh, a transition year student in one of those schools, is with me in the House today - and students do not know where they are going to go to secondary school this September. I have raised this repeatedly in the Chamber. Will the Taoiseach look at whether that system for payslips can be changed from opt-out to opt-in to save money and whether that money can be ring-fenced into the school building programme to accelerate much-needed school places for communities such as mine?

See this speech in context