The Government has decided to establish a Payroll Shared Service Centre (PSSC) for the Civil and Public Service as part of its Public Sector Reform Plan. The PSSC aims to consolidate and integrate payrolls from the 18 payroll centres currently delivering payroll to 53 Departments and Offices.
The PSSC will be based in three locations (Killarney, Tullamore and the existing Department of Defence site in Galway) and will be managed and operated by civil servants under the control of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). All Department of Defence payrolls – including those for retired military personnel in receipt of pensions – will be migrated to the PSSC.
It is stated that the successful implementation of the PSSC project will facilitate the provision of:
- The option for online payslips, P60s, etc.
- A high quality customer service.
- Greater efficiency in payroll service delivery.
The Department of Defence has informed ARCOIreland that it intends to make the move to PSSC as seamless as possible. A project team has been set up within Finance Branch in Galway to ensure that the move is accomplished with the minimum of disruption to its clients. The Department envisages that all Defence payrolls will be moved to the PSSC on a phased basis over the coming 12 to 15 months, with the military pensions’ payroll doing so by early to mid 2015.
ARCOIreland raised a number of concerns in relation to PSSC when it met with Department of Defence officials on 11 February 2014. These included:
- The difficulties a move towards online pension services would present for some ARCOIreland members.
- The need to maintain a named point-of-contact to deal with pension related queries from ARCOIreland members post-migration to PSSC.
These points were reiterated and expanded upon in a follow-up letter from ARCOIreland to the Department of Defence, sent on 4 March. In its letter ARCOIreland pointed to the significant number of its members who do not have direct access to a computer or to e-mail. ARCOIreland also pointed to the fact that achieving the promised high quality of customer service may prove difficult in an environment where civil servants, who have no previous knowledge or background in matters specific to Defence Forces pensions, could become responsible for administering military pension accounts.
ARCOIreland will maintain contact with the Department of Defence on this matter and further postings will be placed on this website as information becomes available to it. Members are invited to pass any concerns they might have to ARCOIreland.
