Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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304. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will set out the rationale for requiring teachers to have not just a MyGov account but also a public services card in order to avail of digital payslips. [21758/23]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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305. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she and or officials engaged with the Department of Social Protection in the context of using the public services card in order to access digital payslips; if she and or officials requested sanction for this from either the Minister For Social Protection or the Minister For Public Service and Reform. [21759/23]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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306. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she engaged with officials or the Ministers at the Department of Social Protection and or Education in the context of the use of the public services card in order to access payslips by teachers. [21760/23]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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307. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she and or her officials undertook a data protection impact assessment in the context of digital payslips issuing for teachers, the use of a public services card and my gov ID to access same; and if she will provide the outcomes of that assessment to this Deputy or publish them on her Departments website. [21761/23]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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308. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will set out the rationale for setting up the digital service as an opt-in service rather than an opt-out one. [21762/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 304 to 308, inclusive, together.

As referenced, payslips are now being made available to serving and retired staff, paid through the Department’s schools employee payroll service, in two formats. Firstly the paper payslip is still available as an option, and secondly an e-payslip can now be delivered electronically to a recipient’s Digital Postbox should they choose to avail of this service.

The e-payslip is being provided on an opt-in basis and recipients’ may select the format by which they wish to receive their payslip.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer manages this service which uses encryption and other security tools and techniques to safeguard the data.In addition, my Department also undertook its own assessment of the data protection implications of using this service before deciding to use the Digital Postbox.This assessment included consultation with my Department’s Data Protection Officer who was satisfied with the content of the DPIA and that relevant risks were identified and mitigated against.

Access to the Digital Postbox is authenticated via MyGovID using a two-factor authentication process. This is designed to ensure that access to the Digital Postbox is safe and secure and that no other persons can access an individual’s account. This is the standard process in place to utilise the Digital Postbox to receive communications from public bodies.

I can confirm that officials from my Department engaged with officials from the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, the Department of Social Protection, Teacher Representative Organisations and School Management Bodies, on the delivery of the e-payslips via the Digital Postbox.

Access to e-payslips via the Digital Postbox was made available to primary school teachers on 27th April 2023 and will be available to post primary school teachers on 18th May 2023.