Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 3: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if, regarding the two rulings made against his Department by a rights commissioner, where two part-time teachers were awarded €100,000 in total salary arrears, he will quantify the amount owed to teachers as a result of this failure to implement the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26516/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I assure the Deputy that the Department of Education and Science is aware of the issues relating to the pay adjustments which are due to certain part-time teachers under the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001. It has worked closely with school management bodies and teacher unions to ensure the legislation is implemented and applied to teachers fairly and consistently. The Department has made pay adjustments and paid arrears to the majority of part-time teachers, including substitute teachers, who are on the payrolls it directly administers. It has funded VECs to do likewise for part-time teachers on their payrolls. Part-time teachers who are employed on a part-time basis by individual boards of management of primary schools have yet to receive adjusted pay and arrears. There is a grant system in place to allow the boards to claim from the Department the funding required to pay such teachers. The boards of management pay part-time teachers directly. Such teachers are mainly employed by schools as resource teachers for special needs pupils, as language support assistants for newcomer pupils or under the modern languages primary schools initiative.

Under the Protection of Employees (Part-time Work) Act 2001, qualified eligible part-time teachers are entitled to be paid salaries appropriate to their qualifications and to receive incremental credits for their relevant teaching service. The Department decided to extend the single payroll process for all other teachers in primary, secondary and community and comprehensive schools, rather than persisting with the practice of having boards pay them directly, to ensure that the terms of the 2001 Act could be applied to part-time teachers who are paid directly by school boards. This approach ensures that teachers who have served part-time in more than one school can get full credit for their overall service. Software development is well advanced on the required extension to the payroll system.

It is not possible to assess the amount of money due to individual teachers, or in aggregate, because the Department holds no records on the teachers concerned. To calculate the correct salary details, the Department needs to obtain a complete service history for the teachers in question from each of the schools involved. This information will be added to the payroll database to make any salary adjustments needed when entitlements under the legislation are matched to the service history of the teachers. Under the implementation schedule, the collection of this service history data will begin when primary schools reopen in the autumn. All part-time teachers will be paid directly on the teachers' payroll from 2009. The system will have the capacity to pay arrears due on the basis of past service.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I would like to focus on the real problem that exists at present, rather than the payroll system that will be introduced in the 2008-09 school year. I understand that up to 1,000 part-time teachers have not been paid the correct amounts for their work over the past seven years. Will the Minister give the House an indication of the total financial liability the Department of Education and Science will face when the review has been completed? Will he confirm that arrears of €100,000 — €60,000 in one case and €40,000 in the other — had to be repaid to two teachers in the cases, taken at rights commissioner level, which were brought to the Minister's attention in a brief when he took over as Minister for Education and Science. Will he also confirm the total number of cases taken by part-time teachers which are before rights commissioners or the courts at present? I presume he will face a huge financial bill as a result of the incompetence of the Department of Education and Science in enforcing this legislation.

When the Minister read the departmental brief on this matter when he took office, what was his view? What was his reaction when he read the part of the brief which suggested that the Department's failure to pay the appropriate rate of salary to part-time teachers could lead to it being found to have acted unlawfully? This problem has emerged seven years after the enactment of legislation that was supposed to give part-time workers the same rights as permanent workers.

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

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Can the Minister give some indication of the total cost to his Department of the payment of arrears to part-time teachers? How many cases taken by part-time teachers are currently before rights commissioners?

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I do not have information regarding the Deputy's final question about the cases before the rights commissioners. I will make sure that the Deputy is made aware of how many cases are in question. As he will know, an individual has the right to to go to the rights commissioner even though an agreement has been reached between the stakeholders. That has been adopted.

Of the two cases that were taken to the rights commissioner, I believe one had an agreement of €35,000 and the other was of €55,000.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Has the Minister any ball-park figures concerning how much this will cost? He does not have the money at the moment.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have asked the officials to try to piece this together but I understand it will be quite a substantial sum.