Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to tease out the discussions with the departmental officials and officials from Revenue. The irony is lost on no one that, in order to provide more certainty for Government, we expect 600,000 people to do this in the middle of the year and to get it right. What was the response of the Department when the witnesses talked about cash flow? Where does the Department expect people to find the money to pay the full year's tax in the middle of June? I am curious about the Department's response with regard to a case where someone makes an error in June and how it can justify the volume of penalties described by Ms Sandra Clarke when we expect people, based on the new pay and file returns, to guesstimate.

People might get it wrong based on not knowing what will happen between 1 July and 31 December. I would like to know what the Department's reaction was when these issues were raised with it.