Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will call the Comptroller and Auditor General in a moment to give his opinion. I am familiar with the article to which the Deputy refers. The committee has highlighted a couple of matters. First, only a fraction of the settlements published by the commission are paid. Although a firm may be adjudicated as owing €1.4 million or similar, there is no indication of whether that amount has been paid in full or in part. Sometimes it is paid and sometimes it is not. We have asked for details of the amounts collected following the publication of the appeals. We will receive those figures. The percentage is relatively low. It seems that the Revenue pursue the tax judgment to make a point. It may be aware that it will not receive the money, but it wants to follow cases through.

Second, in the cases referred to by the Deputy, the Revenue faced a legal challenge on grounds of delay. The Comptroller and Auditor General referred to this in his annual report. That means that we need to bring in Revenue quite promptly on this issue. I ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to give his opinion.