Ms Cora O'Brien:

Appealing an assessment does not mean a taxpayer is in breach of the law. It is not a case of the taxpayer not paying his or her tax liability when he or she decides to appeal but of him or her not agreeing with the assessment. A person is fully entitled to appeal an assessment and still be within the law. This is part of the problem. There will be a mix-up of what has happened in these cases. People reading about them will think the taxpayers concerned have breached the law. They have not; rather, they are availing of their entitlement to disagree and take the case to the Appeal Commissioners. Everything surrounding the issue is then attached to that person and his or her personal reputation. There are so many grey areas that I have concerns that people will be afraid to appeal because it will look as if they have done something wrong, that they have breached the law, when they have not. That is a very important principle that we need to ensure is enshrined.

In response to the Deputy's question on whether the fact that cases are heard in public in the High Court acts as a deterrent to appealing Revenue's decisions to the High Court, I am not aware if any study has been conducted, but I can check to see if there is research on what happens to the pattern if the rules are changed. A person who goes through the appeals process has to sit down and reach a decision on whether he or she will take the next step and incur very large expenditure in taking the case to the High Court. He or she has to answer that question.

It is a big decision, to which there are many aspects, and he or she takes it when he or she has exhausted the appeals process. I do not think it warrants him or her having to make it at the outset. The person is not being given a chance to explore the possibility that his or her view of what should be paid, which is different from that of Revenue, might be right. He or she has not had a chance to have that issue discussed and adjudicated on in a confidential setting and then to move to the open public court. Everybody fully agrees with this. We do not agree with imposing the publicity and everything that goes with it on the person concerned, taking the whole set of rules from the judicial system and placing it in this process.