Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Feehily and her colleagues. I am sure she is aware that there are very many tax-compliant citizens who regard this not as a just or fair measure but as a sort of Big Brother tax and an unfair imposition on them. I note Ms Feehily was amused by the story in the media about GPS data and the notion of Revenue officials hovering overhead taking satellite photographs of homes. Most people did not find the story amusing and it is a measure of just how odious this tax is considered that many people believe it to be the truth.

Ms Feehily set out the process she envisages will be used for acquiring information and for estimating and collecting the tax. I want to explore with her the issue of non-compliance. A great number of the 1.6 million persons or households the Revenue will write to are in what any reasonable person would be consider to be financial hardship. Sadly - and this does not fall to the Revenue Commissioners - the definition of financial hardship will not include someone who is on jobseeker's allowance or a State pension because, bizarrely, such categories of person are not considered to be in financial hardship. All of these categories of persons are captured as qualifying to pay the tax. What will happen to a person who does not file any return?