Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have been in contact with officials in the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Before I read into the record what they had to say, I would like to come back to the point that was made about the 1.49% rate that customers are paying. Further information has become available to me in that regard. It has been suggested to me that more secure systems, such as 3-D Secure prompts, could be used. These systems require the card holder to give a password or card number to verify his or her identity. In addition to fulfilling data protection requirements, these systems also seem to lower the commission rate. The industry commission rate seems to be approximately 1%. The major retail companies in Ireland that have significant volumes of card transactions seem to charge this 1% rate. As I said earlier, people give a code or an iTunes account number when they are using Amazon or iTunes. The biggest companies in the world - we are not talking about the Revenue Commissioners - operate a system that merely requires one to provide a password in order for one's account to be debited.

I would like to follow up on what Senator Hayden was saying by quoting from the feedback we have received from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner:

We are aware of recent media reports which appear to reference statements from the Revenue Commissioners outlining data protection issues with the retention of credit card data. We can advise that any organisation, including Revenue, is responsible under data protection law for keeping personal data it holds safe and secure and it is also obliged to only collect personal data when it is required and then retain it only for as long as is necessary. Revenue, being an organisation which is very aware of its data protection responsibilities, appears to have considered these data protection principles and applied them accordingly in relation to the collection and storage of credit card data for a particular transaction. There are separate industry payment card standards which providers of payment card services have to adhere to and which may also be relevant to Revenue's approach in this matter but those requirements would not be matters for this Office.

This brings us back to the point that Senator Hayden was making. I made the same point at the start of the meeting. It has been made by other people as well. Certain systems or processes could be examined to ascertain whether they could be used in the future. I recognise that Revenue has done a great job in providing as many options as possible to the public. Some red herrings have been thrown out there this afternoon.

I will reiterate the core issue that is being debated this evening. Of the seven options, the highest rate of compliance relates to the credit and debit card option. They are the only customers who are being asked to pay the tax in the year before it is due. I can assure Ms Feehily, in response to a point she made earlier, that I understand how the tax is being created and the operational systems are being rolled out. Perhaps it is just my opinion, but I do not think those who were complaining back in May or June were complaining about having to pay the 2013 tax in 2013. The concern at the moment is that people are being asked to pay a 2014 tax in 2013. That is at the nub of this issue. I recognise what Ms Feehily has said this evening. I appreciate her assurance that Revenue will agree to examine the matter. I would be interested to know if there are hindrances with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, or if there are difficulties with Revenue's merchant agreement with the people who handle its credit card transactions. All the information in front of me would indicate that this is a workable problem. A solution can be found for it. Maybe the difficulty was that none of us saw this coming down the tracks. Now we can engineer a solution towards it.