Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is the Appeal Commissioners' office well-resourced and well-funded? How many commissioners are there, how many staff do they have, and what sort of budget are they operating with?

Regarding the six Circuit Court cases that went in favour of the taxpayer, to which Deputy Doherty referred, was any of those cases appealed by Revenue or was the Circuit Court opinion accepted?

Regarding the maximum assessment that Mr. O'Leary mentioned, he said there might be an issue about inequality between those paying a lot and those paying little. How strong is that? I have no doubt it will come up in discussion when we talk about this legislation on later Stages.

Regarding the fact that an individual can go back to the Circuit Court after going to the Appeal Commissioners, did a constitutional issue crop up during the discussion on this? Why can the person go right back to stage one again? Is there a constitutional issue that means we have no choice but to let this option be available?

This next question probably cannot be answered now but details might be submitted to the secretariat. Could Revenue give some background information on the individuals or groups it sees as having gotten away with it by dragging the appeals for so long? Is there evidence that assets were disposed of and that, when Revenue came knocking, there was nothing left to take? Could we also have a little more detail on the €1 billion breakdown? I know we are talking about 600 or 700 cases at any one time, which would also reflect on other cases. Does that broaden out to 1,000 cases? If we are talking about 1,000 cases and €1 billion, we are not talking about small change but significant assessments that have been made and have been delayed. A little more detail on this would help us in our deliberations when this comes to us as a piece of legislation.