Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have been raising this issue for a number of years now. Britain had an appeal mechanism to deal with this practice. Individuals who were working for a broadcaster and claiming this company structure were not deemed to be employed directly by the company. If memory serves me correctly, they successfully appealed it in 2007 and therefore the issue has been dealt with, by and large. The problem here is that there is no such mechanism to appeal it. As there is no statutory provision to prevent this practice, the Revenue Commissioners have no mechanism to appeal it. The only way this can be ended is if we allow for what is a legitimate practice like this to become an illegitimate practice in the future.

The Irish Independentreported on the discussion document of the Committee of Public Accounts, which includes a chapter on RTÉ and draft conclusions and recommendations. In regard to that document the PAC report states: "On the basis of evidence presented to the committee, the creation of limited companies by RTÉ's' top earners is used primarily for the purpose of reducing their exposure to income tax, which comes at a cost to the Exchequer." One of the draft recommendations is that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform "bring forward proposals to address this practice", with which I concur. I am not sure those draft recommendations or that section of the PAC report will find its way into the final report. One source is reported as saying that that wording will not appear in the final report. However, it gives us a flavour of where the PAC is at on this issue. This is an issue of tax fairness. The practice is legitimate and people will obviously use legitimate means to reduce their tax liability if they have the wherewithal to do so. This scheme is known to the Minister because I previously brought it to his attention. It is also known to the Revenue Commissioners. I understand that Revenue cannot address the matter and can only advise the Minister on what needs to be done. I am disappointed that no action is being taken in yet another Finance Bill to address this practice.