Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 21 January 2015
201. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason special needs assistants have not received their increments; the reason it has taken six weeks to rectify the matter; and if she will confirm the problem will be rectified by the next pay cycle and increments will be backdated and not subject to taxation. [2977/15]
View answerThe details of the Haddington Road Agreement for special need assistants are outlined in my Department Circular 34/2013.
My Department operates the largest payroll in the State, with approximately 98,000 school employees and pensioners paid every fortnight. These payrolls have become increasingly complex over the past five years, due to the following:
- Introduction of two salary scales, by comparison to a single salary scale for special need assistants, prior to 2010;
- Introduction of the Universal Social Charge (USC), Pension related Deduction (PRD) and the single pension scheme;
- Implementation of new sick leave regulations for school employees etc. In addition, the school employee payrolls have a high volume of substitute and casual appointments for payment, which is not a feature of other comparable payrolls for Civil Servants, Army, Garda Siochána etc. Work is ongoing at present to incorporate payments to home tutors through the payroll, which will broaden the range of payees coming within the remit of the school employee payrolls. Accordingly, the development of the software to implement the Haddington Road Agreement (HRA) in the context of the overall numbers being paid on the payroll (including substitute and casual appointees), the payroll complexities referenced above and the complexity of the agreement itself has been a very difficult and complex task. A further complication is the fact that the software programme in addition to dealing with the deferred increments has to calculate/re calculate the salary reduction provisions of the HRA for those reaching €65,000 taking account of the impact of increments and allowances. The development of the programmes together with the comprehensive testing necessary to ensure the correct application of the terms of the agreement has taken longer than projected to implement. The target dates for the payment of the deferred increments and arrears to special need assistants is the 12th February. The normal taxation arrangements will apply.
