Ms Josephine Feehily:

If we were to do something like that, the person in question would have to think about going back in on New Year's Eve, which is not a day people would necessarily be thinking about their tax for the following day and I would not be doing our job of securing the revenues for the State effectively if we said to people, "You can tell us now and you can come back in on New Year's Eve to pay", but, more important, we would deprive those people of the opportunity to spread their payments evenly over the year. The reason we were out there talking to people at the end of October is to give the maximum opportunity to them to avail of phased payments over 52 weeks or 12 months. That is why we need to know now in order that we can put the various payment systems in place. While the Deputy might say that somebody could say he or she will come back on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day to pay with his or her credit card, there is a small but significant number of people who change their mind during the year. One can change one's payment option any time. If the Deputy changes his mind on 2 January, we will be lucky if we can get his direct debit up for the middle of February or if he is monthly paid for his March payment through employment deductions. It is risky. Why would one?

I keep coming back to the fact that if somebody is uncomfortable about paying before 1 January with a plastic card, we provide an alternative called the single debit authority, which is identical to a debit card. A customer has to give us less information and do it with fewer clicks on the website and we are giving that category as a concession until 21 March because I am satisfied in terms of my governance responsibilities that I have the authority to collect that money so the money is secure.