Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A total of 22,971 people will be paying their local property tax adding up to approximately €6 million in 2014, as Ms O'Donoghue said. When the legislation relating to the local property tax was introduced, arrangements were put in place where it could be deducted through a person's employer. Employers are required under legislation to give a statement at the end of the year regarding the amount deducted. There are arrangements in that legislation that specifically say that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is obliged by law to give a statement at the end of the year to people who make their payments for the local property tax from moneys received from the Department. When it comes to the 22,971 people who pay through the Department of Social Protection and who are probably by definition people on the lowest income level, there is no requirement in the legislation for a receipt or statement to issue automatically to these people at the end of the year.

I put down a parliamentary question to the Minister for Finance some time ago relating to the cases I mentioned. I was informed that this decision was made after consultation with the Department of Social Protection so I want to know why the 22,971 people who are paying €6 million through the Department this year are the only people in Ireland who are not getting an automatic receipt for their local property tax. I think this was bad service on the part of the Department. It probably felt there was a cost involved and that people could request a statement of what they had paid. That is not the point. Everybody else gets it automatically from Revenue, their employer or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Everyone else is covered. The Department of Social Protection was involved in the decision not to give the receipt to its customers unlike every other customer in Ireland. The Department was not treating its customers fairly. I would ask Ms O'Donoghue why this is the case and whether the Department would not reconsider at least giving people an annual statement because people forget. Three or four years on, a person might die, the question of whether he or she paid the local property tax arises, people scramble around the place and there is no evidence, proof or receipt in the box or cupboard at home while a receipt or at least an annual statement is issued for every other payment of the local property tax. Could Ms O'Donoghue comment on that because I have felt that it is unfair and have said that I would raise it with her?