Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before I call Deputy Burke, it is clear that the TAC is not even remotely staffed and resourced to the scale required by the task at hand. I have never seen anything as bad as this at the committee. Some €1.6 billion of taxpayers' money is hanging out there when it should be in the State's coffers. Most of it probably will be once the cases are settled.

According to its report, the TAC received 1,751 appeals in 2017 and settled 693 of those. Its waiting list increased by more than 1,000. That anyone would need a retired Secretary General to say that the agency needed more staff is a joke. It is obvious. I hope the Minister is listening. By not resourcing the commission enough to do its job of efficiently collecting moneys due to the taxpayer, he is letting the taxpayer down. Given the size of its office, the commission has my sympathy in trying to cope with the tsunami of appeals. It is outrageous. We will get into further detail, but those were my initial comments. Whoever set up the office had no concept of, or did not adequately anticipate, the number of appeals. It should have been obvious after six months and was totally obvious after 12. Now a former Secretary General is being brought in to consider the staffing issue. Whoever made that suggestion still does not get it. I could not let the meeting commence without saying that. We are here to support the commission.