Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is section 11(1)(b). I have a final question. A large number of renters who are entitled to this have not claimed the credit. It is a cumbersome way to claim the credit because you need to get details from your landlord, you need to put your own details and so on. However, a lot of people are fearful of even having a conversation about rents with the landlord. The landlord might say they have forgotten about the rent and decide to put it up by 2%, or by 10% if you are outside a rent pressure zone. People are therefore reluctant. There is a lot in our tax code, as we are all aware. Revenue carries out audits after the fact. We accept the bona fides of taxpayers. A family that might have a medical cost of €4,000 for orthodontics or something of that nature would be able to avail of a tax relief, which they would fill in online. They do not have to provide any receipts or details of when the event happened. They would be able to get 20% relief on that, which is €800. That is more than the rent relief.

What happens is that they have to hold onto the receipts and if Revenue comes knocking on their door, they have to show that the treatment actually happened. However, we are asking renters to jump through not only their own hoops but to talk to their landlords and get their details and tax and RTB numbers. We need to look at the operation of this. We should not be looking at renters with suspicion. Why would we trust somebody who says they have got €4,000 of orthodontic treatment done and who will get €800 worth of relief onros.iewhile sitting at home and not the renter who could do exactly the same thing with the proper audits in place? Everybody fears Revenue and rightly so. It has a big stick and it is right that it does. When the process works for that relief and for many other things, why can we not simplify the process for renters? On that note, unfortunately, I have to go but my colleague will fill me in.