Mr. Mark O'Mahony:

It depends on the type of case involved. I am not trying to avoid the question, but a very simple appeal, if we were fully staffed and it is clear there has been a misunderstanding of something by Revenue, could be resolved within months. There are certain time periods built into the legislation. One of the first things we do when we notify Revenue of the receipt of an appeal, is we ask if it is valid and if it meets the statutory criteria to enable us to consider it.

Revenue has a 30-day period within which to object to the validity of the appeal. With all the staff and all the budget in the world, there are 30 days that we cannot get around. It is very difficult to say at this juncture what an average time should be or what a reasonable target would be. I suspect ultimately there will be three different targets for simple, medium and highly complex appeals. In terms of putting a number on it, I do not think we are quite in a position to do that yet.