Ms Josephine Feehily:

I think that is true. A couple of things are suffering. We always have a pipeline of very significant information technology developments every year and obviously that is suffering.

Quite a number of the new things we would like to do have been moved back into next year and the year after. This is very big for us but it is not unusual for a new provision to be introduced which requires us to readjust our scheduling.

The most immediate impact has been on our IT schedule of improvements and enhancements. It has had an impact in that we have had to close down a tax district in County Clare, with the work being moved to Limerick. The impact has been solely on the counter service, not on the availability of staff to do audit and compliance work and to provide a telephone service. It has diverted some of my best and brightest from devising new policies. For example, normally at this time of the year, we would be updating our audit policy or our policies and strategies relating to PAYE. The team is instead heavily involved in the business analysis and will also be involved in publicity regarding the local property tax.

I have tried to ensure at this point that its impact is confined to new things that we would have liked to do and should be doing in order to keep ourselves up to speed. However, when the returns are sent out, the volume of business could impact on our telephone service for other taxpayers. I hope this will not be the case. We will try our best to ensure it does not. It could also impact on our debt management area. The letters will be sent out in the name of the Collector General and that office will receive the payments which will need to be processed. It could impact on collection timeliness at our end, not out there. We are doing our best to ensure it does not. I will not be able to answer that question until I see the extent. The online system is very simple. If that system helps with diminishing the confusion and volumes, the impact will be minimised.