Vol. 430 No. 3
157 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education the reason substitute teachers, for whom certified claim forms were submitted by their schools by Wednesday, 7 April 1993 and who were therefore due to be paid on Friday 9 April 1993 were not paid on that date; when these teachers were paid for the period in question; and the reason no alternative arrangements were made to pay the teachers earlier than 9 April 1993.
Due to necessary end-of-year processing, which has to be completed before the first pay-issue of the 1993-94 income tax year, the payroll files were closed from 2-8 April 1993. The Deparment's offices were closed for the Easter break from 9-13 April, inclusive. Of a total of approximately 1,000 claims received by 7 April, 708 were paid on Friday, 16 April, while the remainder were paid on Friday, 23 April, 1993.
In the circumstances, my Department has no alternative options available for earlier payment of the teachers concerned. It is expected, however, that a new computerised payroll system which was recently introduced for permanent and temporary teachers, will be implemented for substitute teachers in the coming months. Under this system, the closing of files for end-of-year processing will not be necessary, so problems of this nature should not again arise.
