Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, the Revenue discusses these matters with the Department of Finance and, usually, unless there are extravagant demands, it gets what it looks for. It needed funding on this occasion to hire extra staff and it has been hiring extra staff. In 2015, for example, it got 126 extra staff made up of 56 in compliance, 50 on local property tax and 20 for the international tax. There is an increase of 50 staff in 2016 and it is for compliance.

This represents good value for money. When Revenue looks for funding for extra staff then taking into account the fiscal space and all the other matters, if each extra member of staff is able to collect more of tax forgone than his or her salary then it is a fairly good decision to hire him or her. One should think of it in those terms. It is not unlimited; Revenue is happy with its allocation.

On the Panama papers, I understand that Revenue is accessing specific data to ascertain the extent of the involvement of Irish taxpayers and what significance that has to the Irish tax position, and that it has sufficient resources to do that. Beyond that general remark, I do not know the specifics. If the Deputy puts down a written question, we will get some more information for him. Revenue has sought access to the Panama papers, both from the media outlets and directly from Panama under our double taxation agreement. The Department has since reacted to international developments, including agreeing to the pilot initiative on the exchange of information on beneficial ownership at informal ECOFIN meetings. The Dutch Presidency got the tax directive through the ECOFIN two weeks ago and it will go on to the European Parliament now for trilogues, etc. The speed at which that was processed was a direct response to the Panama paper revelations.