Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

As the Deputy will be aware, the Revenue Commissioners are responsible for collecting the local property tax. All dealings with members of the public will be carried out by Revenue and my Department will not be involved in any instance. The Department's role in facilitating deductions from social welfare payments is to act on instruction from Revenue. When people get their correspondence from Revenue they will be presented with a number of methods of payment, including the option of having a deduction at source from a social welfare payment. The schemes that have been agreed for this purpose are the long-term stable schemes in the first instance, such as pensions and carers' allowances.