Mr. John O'Callaghan:

What about expanding the exclusion I read out and ensuring people's financial affairs do not feature? One of my fears would be that the taxpayer might perceive Revenue was using the appeal almost as a threat. I do not mean this as a criticism of Revenue. Say a person was running a Spar shop in Banagher and had one competitor, a Mace shop. If this person were claiming an office room in his or her home as an expense in his or her business accounts, Revenue could propose an appeal, at which the business accounts would be made public and the person's competitor would see how vulnerable the business was. It should be possible at a pre-hearing for such a person to ask for his or her accounts to be made available to the Appeal Commissioners but excluded from the public domain. The net issue of whether a person can use a room in her or her house and office and the related expenses and tax information could be heard in isolation from the personal circumstances, which could be kept private. This is the sort of proposal I discussed with Deputy Pearse Doherty. The solution may lie in such an area.