Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 825: To ask the Minister for Education and Science, further to Parliamentary Question No. 199 of 10 March 2005, the name of the person who was responsible for the error that caused the overpayment to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo of €16,000; the name of the person who did it again in 2003; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10087/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Some 44,000 serving teachers and 6,000 special needs assistants employed in primary, secondary and community-comprehensive schools are paid by my Department on a fortnightly basis on behalf of the boards of management which are the employers. My Department is also responsible for the payment of approximately 14,000 retired teachers on a fortnightly basis.

The input of data to ensure correct payment of the teachers and special needs assistants on an ongoing basis is a huge task for the staff of my Department. Prior to April 2001, boards of management were responsible for the payment of the special needs assistants they employed and were reimbursed the employment costs by my Department. In April, 2001 the new payroll operated by my Department was introduced which has helped to reduce the workload for boards of management and facilitated the introduction of improved conditions of service for the special needs assistants. The data necessary to place the special needs assistants on payroll was obtained from the boards. This data was input to the payroll.

The original error occurred when the data was being input onto the new payroll. The data were input at the level of clerical officer in my Department. The subsequent error in the determination of the scale point in 2003 was made at the level of executive officer.