Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to discuss something I have raised in this House before, which is the working hours and opening hours of the Revenue Commissioners. A number of people have been on to me about this recently, especially with the tax deadline approaching. The offices of the Revenue Commissioners are only open online and over the phone from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Every other public service in this country has returned to normal working hours. People can walk into buildings, public offices, libraries and different places, but yet Revenue does not open its doors. So many people have failed to be able to get through on the phone lines. Some people have been ringing for two and three days and still have not got through. It keeps diverting people back to the online chat, from which it takes days to get a response and half the time the query a person puts in is not answered at all. It is really a very unsatisfactory way of dealing with people. So many people nowadays are paid through Revenue and every thing is done now through the Revenue online system, ROS, but it does not work for everybody, especially for older people. People find it more beneficial to have a face-to-face conversation. Even if they have to do it over the phone, Revenue should be able to answer the phone. A person should not have to ring for days on end to try to get through to the Revenue office. At the moment, an unprecedented number of calls and people have not succeeded in getting through. Somebody I know who was overpaid in tax and was trying to sort it out could not get through. Somebody else I know was on to Revenue about their vacant home tax. This was to do with the fact that they had an explanation or a reason they had not been in the home. It was due to someone being in hospital and they wanted to explain that but they could not get though to do that. It is totally unsatisfactory and Revenue needs to open its doors. The public health restrictions were lifted a long time ago at this stage and Revenue is still not back to a normal working day.