Mr. Niall Cody:

The Revenue sheriff system is under Department of Justice and Equality legislation in the first instance. The sheriffs are officers of the court. We and they have a code of conduct which is regularly updated and is available on our website and from them. There is a complaints procedure in individual cases. The sheriff system is a really important part of our debt management and enforcement system. In 2016, we had 36,000 referrals to the sheriff in relation to €268 million. Of the €268 million that was referred in 2016, the amount of €148 million was collected as a result of the sheriff activity.

The sheriffs are engaged in very difficult work. There is no question about that. A referral will not take place to the sheriff until it is at the end of a process of failure to engage with our staff in the Collector General's office. I have complaints in my office where a person claimed that a sheriff appeared out of the blue and did X, Y and Z. That cannot happen.

It has to be at the end of a process of engagement and a failure to engage with us. Most referrals to the sheriff do not result in seizure. Mostly what happens is the sheriff appears and engagement happens. The sheriffs are professionals, such as solicitors. The UK was mentioned and there has been an element of privatisation of debt collection in certain areas there. I would not like to go down that route. I have read about debt collection agents in the US. The sheriff process provides a very important safeguard but it does not mean that in individual cases things do not happen that should not happen and tempers get frayed. I know of a recent case in which the emergency response unit was brought in as a result of problems with the case.

The Deputy has asked a series of parliamentary questions and has a concern about computers. Sheriffs are bound by data protection legislation and they have protocols. The Chairman asked me about it the last day. I look at all the parliamentary questions. I was very interested in the questions the Deputy asked about data protection. Computers are very different. We have spoken to the sheriffs about ensuring they abide by the data protection protocols.