Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 28 March 2019

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I thank Deputy O'Brien because it is the HSE which commissioned the report. We will put it on notice that we request that as well. We will come back to the other issue about the capital works management framework and the Government contracts committee at that meeting. We will hold over all the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board correspondence to that meeting.

The next item of correspondence is No. 2054B from Ms Geraldine Larkin, chief executive officer, National Standards Authority of Ireland, again relating to the single public service pension scheme. The NSAI had a potential liability of €395,375 for the years 2013-2018 but we covered that topic in our interim report. We will just note and publish that correspondence.

The next item of correspondence is No. 2058Bfrom Mr. Mark Griffin, Secretary General, Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, providing information on a number of matters related to the national broadband plan and the metropolitan area networks. We will note and publish that and discuss it in our meeting with Mr. Griffin after this session.

The next item of correspondence is No. 2059B from the chief executive of the Health Products Regulatory Authority, which again is in connection with the single public service pension scheme. That topic was covered in our periodic report, which we published recently. We will note and publish that.

The next item of correspondence is No. 2060B from Mr. Paddy O'Keeffe of the Tax Appeals Commission, dated 13 March 2019, providing information requested by the committee for a bi-monthly update from the Tax Appeals Commission regarding 17 high value appeals. We will note and publish that but I want to remark that some very big cases are concluded and we intend to ask about them, without identifying any of the people involved. In one case the quantum of the appeal was €138 million. These are the biggest ones. It is to be reviewed at the end of the second quarter but there is a case for €119 million, which is an appeal against a refusal of a corporation tax deduction in the cumulative amount of €120 million. That case was closed in January 2019. If that case is closed, we want information on the agreed figure, the amount for the taxpayer, if it has been paid since or had it been paid in advance. There was another case for €103 million against a refusal of a corporation tax deduction. That case was closed very recently, in February 2019. There was another case of €68 million which was an appeal against refusal of a corporation tax deduction. That was also closed last month. There are cases relating to corporation tax deductions worth €370 million that were closed in recent weeks. We want a report on the outcome of those cases. The taxpayer need not be identified but we want to know the final agreed figure, if it has been paid and, if not, when it will be paid.

Most of the other cases are scheduled for hearing. There was another case of €23 million relating to corporation tax, which was closed in October. Another one of €19 million was also closed in October. Another case of €10 million was closed in October. It is the same issue. We will ask for an update on the financial issue of all the closed cases in terms of the outcome of those cases and the payment to the taxpayer. It is a great schedule. We will ask the Tax Appeals Commission to continue to provide us with a list of the top ten current cases from now on. A good few have gone off the list. We want to make it a manageable list from our point of view.

There was another case, an income tax appeal, involving a sum of €19 million, that was closed in January. A number of cases have been settled in recent weeks to a figure of as much as €400 million and we would like to know the outcome for the taxpayer in each of them. We will change our format. We will ask the Tax Appeals Commissioner to give us every two months the top ten cases in terms of the quantum of money involved and indicate how they are progressing. That will help us to make sure there is a resolution of these matters. There were appeal cases, in respect of which the quantum of money involved was €1.6 billion. I know that the amount of tax to be paid was probably about €1.1 billion. It is in our interests to make sure tax due to the State is collected as speedily and efficiently as possible. We will note and publish the correspondence. We will also write to the Tax Appeals Commissioner to thank him for the information provide and request a further breakdown.

No. 2062 is correspondence received from Mr. John McKeon, Secretary General of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, providing information requested by the committee on the capital assistance programme. We will note and publish the correspondence and take it into consideration as part of our work on the housing issue which we will be concluding soon.

No. 2063 is correspondence, dated 14 March 2019, received from the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, on the Criminal Justice (Community Sanctions) Bill. It explains that the Bill "provides for a replacement of the Court Poor Box by the establishment of a statutory Reparation Fund. These funds will be allocated to ... victims of crime and for compensation payments payable by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal. The reparation fund ... will be subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General". Is the Comptroller and Auditor General aware of this?

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