Mr. Niall Cody:

Yes, there is. In the 2014 review the Comptroller and Auditor General looked at the issue of debt management and debt control. One of the areas that the report highlighted was the level of debt that was more than a year old. The preponderance of that debt is at the lower end of the taxpayer base. We have invested in our IT and data systems in order that, through 2016, we had a serious focus on the numbers of debtors who we could not get to as often as we got to the higher rank. Looking at our compliance rates, our timely compliance rates of large cases is 99%, for medium cases it is 98% and for small cases is now up to 88%, but that was down in the lower half of the 80s. Through 2016 we got to small debtors whom we would not have to got to as quickly before.

If someone has difficulty paying their debts, there are two things that person needs to do. They need to submit their returns and they need to engage with us. If they engage with us, we will deal with it and we will enter into instalment arrangements to allow people bring their affairs up to date.