Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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420. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his attention has been drawn to a matter (details supplied) regarding pension rate of pay and medical leave threshold under the PeoplePoint project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31205/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister would like to clarify the following for the Deputy:

- PeoplePoint is the HR and Pensions Administration shared service for the Civil Service. It transacts on behalf of the client Departments and Public Service Bodies it serves, which is currently 26,500 Civil Servants.

- In line with D/PER Circular 6/2014 Arrangements for Paid Sick Leave and Public Service Management (Sick Leave) Regulations 2014, PeoplePoint takes instruction from the officer's employing Department or Body.

- PeoplePoint informs the employer when the officer has surpassed their medical leave threshold and seeks instruction on whether or not to award TRR (Temporary Rehabilitation Remuneration). When instructed to award TRR to an individual officer, PeoplePoint then carries out the appropriate calculations and informs the relevant salary section of the adjustment to the officer's salary.

- PeoplePoint is not required to notify the Department of Social Protection that an officer has been awarded TRR.

- When absent on sick leave for 6 days or more, officers who are Class A PRSI contributors are required to submit Social Welfare MC certificates directly to PeoplePoint who complete the administration of the absence record and forward the completed certificate to the Department of Social Protection.

- As Illness Benefit is now taxable, the PeoplePoint process is that all Social Welfare MC1 forms are mandated to be paid to the employer, unless specifically instructed otherwise by the employing Department/Office. This allows salary sections to apply any applicable tax before payment of the personal rate of Illness benefit to the employee.

- Illness Benefit is a Department of Social Protection payment that is subject to eligibility criteria and restrictions. PeoplePoint has no knowledge of any individual's Illness Benefit payment record or their eligibility for continued payment. The Department of Social Protection has confirmed that under Data Protection policy, PeoplePoint has no entitlement to such information. The Department also confirmed that they do not require to be informed of each individual award of TRR.

- In order to assist salary sections in the reconciliation and recoupment of Illness benefit as appropriate, PeoplePoint provides a weekly report to all organisations serviced by it with details of social welfare certificates forwarded to the Department of Social Protection in the previous working week.