Mr. John O'Callaghan:

Quite a few are ordinary people. We had a recent case with a former Attorney General representing the Revenue where the taxpayer was a pensioner. He claimed that his wife, being a qualified adult dependant, was entitled to the single person's tax credit. He came in on his own. In many of those cases, we are effectively put in the guise of defence counsel because the person would not necessarily know the tax minutiae, etc. It is our function to decide. We are not like a judge in a civil case where whoever makes the best case wins. Our job is to decide what the right amount of tax is.