John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not labour the point. The retailers have reported it to me, the Garda and any public representative they have met in this House. It seems there is almost a reluctance to tackle that illegal activity head-on and prevent it. They refer to the lack of scanners at the various entry points to the country. I am highlighting it here because my background was in retail at one stage, and I understand the margins are tight, as is the regulation. Yet, we have these illegal activities going on affecting people and their family businesses. We have to do everything we possibly can to stop them. The Minister of State should put it to Revenue and ask if there is a requirement for more infrastructure to enable it to do its job fully across the different Departments you would meet at a port for investigation.

Likewise, I raised a question. I do not expect the Minister of State to know the answer, nor am I looking for it. This issue was in the courts. A taxpayer, Mr. Dermot Tobin, appeared before the committee. The case has a huge impact on farming and businesses and relates to the period within which Revenue can go back. I think it is four years. In this case, Revenue went back a multiple of that and brought the man to court as a kind of test case. I asked the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, and I now ask the Minister of State, to look at that case, and, where appropriate, bring forward the necessary legislation to ensure the four-year rule is protected, because businesses and the Law Society are concerned about the outcome of that case and the impact it will have in the future because it was a test case. This man has now been left to pay all of his legal costs, even though he paid his taxes and everything. He was found, in some cases, to be right in what he did and was not trying to do anything illegal, but Revenue wanted to prove a point so that, presumably, it can apply that precedent everywhere. It is an issue. People are very concerned about raising it because it might seem like tax fraud; it is not. It is a real concern for businesses, and I ask the Minister of State to look at that with the Revenue chairman.

It is very difficult to engage with Revenue's public offices. Some of them are not open or do not open and it is hard to get people on the phone. That is not the case for a public representative, however, as a good service is in place. For ordinary citizens, however, who want to engage on their issues with Revenue, it is a concern that the public office facility is not more available to those who have a concern. I am raising these issues with the Minister of State because they have been raised at meetings of this committee and elsewhere. I ask the Minister of State to take note of them.