Mr. Niall Cody:

I had expected to be talking about the businesses that have not engaged, but I can get those figures for the Deputy. At the end of the month, we will be publishing a detailed breakdown and analysis of all the ranges, such as how many businesses owe under €1,000, how many owe between €1,000 and €2,000 and so on among those that are outstanding. One of the features of the businesses that have settled is that a significant sum came in as paid. About €250 million was paid in recent weeks. In recent days, I was looking at records of the highest levels of debt on record and wondering whether they were going to come in because, obviously, that has a huge impact, and a lot of them paid in full in the past week. They did not enter into instalment arrangements, which was really welcome for us.

What has happened with the distribution is that there is a fairly broad range of those that engage, from small companies all the way through to big ones. In the case of businesses in debt of between €500 and €1,000, we have 1,000 cases, which between them owe €1 million. I think a lot of them see they are not really in this cohort at all. As part of the ongoing engagement with us, they will have a repayment for VAT and that will be set off against the debt. There is then a core of companies that always engage with us when the sheriff gives them a demand. It is inextricably hard-wired into their business model. Revenue will send a demand and then a final demand, nobody will react and the sheriff will then get involved.