Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We know where that is heading. We have almost completed our consideration of this. There is a point we would be very remiss not to address. The witness has given us those answers directly and in an upfront fashion, which is great. It will save him the bother of coming back to us. When the report was compiled, the percentage of taxpayers who paid online was 67%. It is now 74% and is moving inexorably upwards.

The next question concerns the cost of processing these payments. We know that there is a penalty of 10% or 13% for paying taxes for a six-month or three-month period. Again, that is a poverty tax. It is a charge on people who cannot afford to pay for an entire year at once. They must pay an extra fee. It has been more than a year since this report. Can the witness give us an estimate of the cost of processing motor vehicle tax online versus the cost of doing it over the counter? I refer to the cost of a single transaction. Whether it is a quarterly or annual payment is neither here nor there. It obviously costs significantly less to do it online.