TD asks why civil service did not notice €1.4m payment gap in just 19 employees' pensions

Galway TD Catherine Connolly noted at the public accounts committee that the pension payment shortfall only emerged after a Comptroller and Auditor General probe rather than from internal checks and balances. File picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Concerns have been raised as to how the Government’s oversight controls missed an enormous public sector pension payments gap, after it emerged that in just 19 cases a liability of €1.4m had accrued.

Addressing the public accounts committee, Bernie Kelly, the chief executive of the National Shared Services Office, which fulfils the civil service’s payroll function, said that she expects that the figure of 13,000 affected civil servants or ministers floated by minister for public expenditure Jack Chambers is unlikely to come to pass, with the number set to be a deal lower.