Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. With regard to the lead-in time for people who want to use a credit or debit card, we had the same issue last summer. People complained in May, but they paid the tax using their cards. Therefore, we knew about the issue. Therefore, there is no doubt that everybody involved in the Department of Finance and the Government could not but have known that a similar problem would arise with regard to the lead-in time and taking the payment in advance of 1 January. We all received queries from people who had moneys taken from their debit and credit accounts last May, although the tax was not due until July. This issue arose last summer and now we face it again. However, there is a particular difficulty now because the payment is for a different calendar year.