Ms Josephine Feehily:

No, I cannot look at it for this year. It is not possible. These are risks that I would have to consider really carefully. We would have to develop new systems and would have to charge people, which is what the commercial companies do.

We are operating with a particular contract for the management of debit and credit cards - the Government contract - at the moment. It is certainly not possible to do anything about it this year. I have already given a commitment to look at it for next year. I am stopping short of giving a commitment that we will get into that kind of business. If we were to get into it, there would be costs that would have to be passed on. A range of issues would arise.

The Senator suggested that Revenue has the power to get lots of information because of its recurring relationship with taxpayers. Most people do not seem to understand that we do not have a recurring relationship with the vast majority of PAYE taxpayers. That goes to the heart of the data protection concern. The Senator said she has a recurring relationship with eToll or some other company. She gets a chance to look at her statement every month or whenever she gets it. She can see very quickly if there has been an irregular payment. We do not have a recurring relationship with PAYE taxpayers unless something happens in their lives and they want to claim a credit. The relationship is managed through their salary and their employer. We have a recurring relationship with self-assessed taxpayers, for whom we have been operating these kinds of payment systems without any issues for a long time. I refer in particular to the single debit authority system. We do not have a recurring relationship with the vast majority of people in employment in this country. That is at the heart of part of the security risk.