Ms Josephine Feehily:

It is not the case in the contract we have. I am not sure those hotel bookings work exactly like that. Any time I have used them they have taken a certain amount of money immediately, and when one turns up at the hotel one has either already paid in full or they immediately ask for one's card. I am not sure it is as simple as the Chairman suggests at all. We do not have that kind of contract. We operate within the Government contract.

To return to the question of the difference between debit card and the date of 21 March for single debit authority. As I outlined in my opening statement, one of our responsibilities in Revenue is to take steps to secure the revenues in a way that reduces the opportunity for non-payment. The difference between the two methods, from Revenue's point of view, is a single debit authority, which is filed on time, gives us the authority to go to a person's bank account once only. We can then make a concession on the time because we have the person's authority to dip their account without returning to them for permission. We have operated this system for many years in the context of self-assessment. It works very securely, safely and cheaply. There are no transaction charges. It is a much simpler, safer and more secure option than getting us into the business of holding and exchanging credit card data.