Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept the logic of the argument, especially in industries like tourism and farming. The amount of milk a cow produces is related to the weather, just as the success of the tourism industry is. I accept it would be very difficult for those involved in those industries to estimate in June what their income will be and pay on that basis. This is probably an example of the type of reform I want to see in this House. We should have an opportunity to discuss the implications of the draft budget and possibly make amendments to it before it is implemented. We should be striving to make reforms that lead to that kind of process. The budget that is published should be seen as a draft. We should have time to discuss and debate it with the experts in advance of the implementation date. This is a fine example of how that can be done in a positive manner.

I would like the witnesses to help me get my head around one of the examples they used. Would the person in the example not have an opportunity to tidy up their tax affairs? When one makes a payment, one is required to look back early the following year to ascertain whether it was accurate and possibly make another payment on that basis. I am always worried about these things.

If examples are to be provided, I would like them to be presented in a factual manner. It is important to keep interaction as factual as possible. Michael Maguire, who I assume is a fictional person, would have had an opportunity to tidy up his affairs long before the audit that took place three years after the event because his tax advisers would have seen his annual accounts. Is that not the case?