Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

One of the top line points made this afternoon is that 600,000 people are filing returns. As there are also employees associated with these, the number involved is greater. This is not an issue of compliancy, but there is probably a risk to compliancy rather than enhanced compliancy. Another issue that has popped up is a concern with regard to liquidity and credit flow for the future. Different comments have been made with regard to the budget in October, but some industries have given the measures in it a massive welcome. The retail area has certainly welcomed them.

The Irish Tax Institute deals with tax for some retail businesses and I am sure the tax returns reflect that the retail sector has had two good quarters and will probably have its best quarter in years this quarter because of sentiment and the measures now put in place. I was talking to a newspaper owner at an event yesterday evening and he told me advertising is coming in for the Christmas market now, but in the past the industry would not have even seen that in December. There are two sides to every coin and for Irish Tax Institute members scheduling of tax returns is creating problems in some areas.

What I recommend now is for the clerk to the committee to prepare a draft report. We are extraordinarily busy, but now that we have the year end timeline the urgency has been lifted from the situation. The clerk will prepare a draft report along the points I have outlined for the committee and bring it to it before Christmas. The committee's recommendation will be to lay that report before the House so that we can have some discussion on it in the new year, because we do not want to let the issue fall off the agenda. The report will also be sent to the Minister for Finance and the Department, to Revenue and to the Economic Management Council. Therefore, it will not just be an issue that was just dealt with today. We will try to keep the issue active in the future also.

I thank Mr. Redmond, Ms Clarke, Mr. Irwin and Ms O'Brien for coming before the committee.