Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 107: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the costs associated with the issuing of payslips to staff including production, printing and delivery for 2007, 2008 and 2009 such as delivery costs, printing costs and so on, in tabular format; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23136/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department processes payroll payments for approximately 1,200 individuals on behalf of the Department, its Offices and a number of agencies.

Under Section 4 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, there is an obligation on my Department to provide a statement of wages and deductions to each individual (i.e. a payslip) as soon as may be after payment has been effected. These payments are made either weekly or fortnightly and my Department issues up to 50,000 payslips per annum in respect of these payments.

It is not possible to identify all of the individual costs associated with the issuing of payslips. For example, issuing payslips is just one element of the overall payroll administration carried out by staff of my Department's Salaries Section. Pay and overhead costs associated specifically with the production of payslips by these staff are not disaggregated on my Department's accounting system. Similarly, payslips are generally delivered as part of the normal in-house postal arrangements in my Department, so no additional cost is incurred in delivering the payslips in these circumstances. In the relatively small number of cases where payslips are posted through the Post Office system, the cost of posting payslips is included in the general postal costs for my Department.

Other costs related to the issuing of payslips, such as the purchase of special stationery or equipment, arise periodically. These costs are captured as part of general stationery and equipment costs on my Department's accounting system and it is not feasible to comprehensively disaggregate them.

However, my officials have been able to identify that costs of €8,221 and €14,655 were incurred in 2007 and 2008 respectively for payslip stationery. The supplies purchased in 2008 have not yet been exhausted.

As part of a general upgrade of my Department's payroll systems, my officials are currently exploring the introduction of on-line payslips as an alternative to the current printed format. This project will minimise the time spent in producing and issuing payslips and will therefore reduce the related costs.