Mr. John O'Callaghan:

Exactly, and that does not feel right sometimes. We should have discretion over Revenue discretions. For instance, a person seeking a subcontractor's certificate must have complied for what is called the relevant period of three years with all the requirements of the tax Acts, making returns on time, paying taxes on time, etc. A person who submitted one VAT return late will lose. There is a provision allowing the Revenue Commissioners to overlook certain misbehaviours in tax terms, but we do not have a power to review that discretion. Somebody might come into us and say: "I was only late once and it was a small amount of VAT. It's over the top. Give me the cert." That is a Revenue discretion; we have no power to review it and cannot do anything about it.