John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will give Ms Feehily the benefit of my simple mind on it. Revenue collected €36 billion last year and is expected to collect €38 billion this year. The Government parties by way of policy decided that they wanted more taxes and then asked Revenue to collect them. They are, therefore, asking it to collect €250 million this year in the local property tax and double that amount next year. If I was in private business, I might not be able to increase demand that easily. Therefore, I would have to refer to my aged debt and my ability to collect and insist on collecting the money I was owed. There will always be someone who will not pay and there will always be a write-off. Running an aged debt figure of approximately 40%, taking all of what Ms Feehily said into consideration, including the fact that it reverts to the year it was owed and so on, is a considerable amount. If Revenue had the €669 million tied up in the appeals system sorted earlier and the investment in the various teams she described in place, the policy makers might not look at a new tax because Revenue was efficient in collecting taxes and sorting out the problems within the current tax system. Is that fair?