Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 September 2016
1915. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will address the transparency and accountability deficiencies in Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, with respect to personal allowances of staff that have not been noted on official salary scales; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24557/16]
View answerI am not aware of any specific example that the Deputy is raising. However, the Deputy may be referring to a report in the media on 20 July 2016 regarding a HSE payroll audit which criticised controls in the Child and Family Agency (Tusla).
The payroll audit took place in October 2014, some 10 months after the establishment of Tusla in January 2014. The establishment of Tusla was a very significant achievement and involved the transfer of 4,000 staff from three different public service agencies and 10 different payroll systems. For example, the majority of the staff transferred from the HSE and came from 8 different payroll systems across the country.
The audit in October 2014 raised issues relating to a small number of staff receiving ‘personal allowances’ not showing on official scales. Tusla has clarified that this situation arose due to the technical challenges in transferring the 4,000 staff from the numerous payroll systems to a single national system. A generic descriptive code of 'Personal Allowance' was created on the new payroll system to ensure payment of a range of allowances that were payable under approved Department of Health scales and Department of Justice scales. On foot of the recommendation of the audit report, Tusla has since reviewed the use of this generic code and introduced specific pay allowance codes.
