Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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It could be property, pharma or IT. We do not know the sector but it would be interesting to start to see that.

What I can say about the trends, the amounts outstanding in the Tax Appeals Commission, only about two years ago it was just over €1 billion, between €1.3 billion and €1.6 billion, and it jumped to €3 billion very quickly. There is a handful of massive multinationals with a phenomenal amount in play. These are the ones in play. I am not even talking about the ones not in play. The trends, I think, are clearly concentrating on the corporation tax side of it. We will ask for a breakdown on that but I think we ourselves have seen where all of the big categories are coming from. We will ask for that, as best we can. We are getting regular reports, and we can refine them as we go along. Is that agreed? We will publish that particular schedule. Is that agreed? We will note and publish.

The next item is No. 2322 from Declan Hoban, head of administration, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, dated 12 July 2019, which provides clarification on information in periodic report No. 6. Mr. Hoban drew attention to two matters. One is that the title of "Deputy Director General" was used in our report, whereas "Deputy Director" is the correct term. The drafting was based on a transcript where the term was used. We will put that on the public record.

The second relates to a point in paragraph J.8 of our report where a reference is mistakenly made to the Attorney General rather than the Director of Public Prosecutions. I propose to note the correction. The error occurred in drafting. It was a factual correction. No conclusion was drawn in relation to that issue. Is it agreed that we will note and publish that? Agreed. I am delighted to see people are reading our reports with a microscope. We are impressed by that.

The next item is No. 2323 from Moyagh Murdock, chief executive officer, Road Safety Authority, dated 17 July 2019, responding to matters raised in correspondence from the Irish Road Haulage Association in respect of the authority's functions that impact on the licensed road haulage sector. The authority has advised it is liaising separately with the association on the particular issuesand has invited the association to furnish specific information and evidence to back up its assertions regarding enforcement activities by An Garda Síochána. In its conclusion, the Road Safety Authority acknowledged that its enforcement checks are constrained by limited resources, absence of fixed charges, deficits in powers and lack of access to information held by other agencies. However, the authority rejects any assertion that there has been a misuse or misapplication of public funds and that assertions to the contrary should be sustained with evidence or withdrawn.

I propose that we suggest that the Irish Road Haulage Association accepts the Road Safety Authority,'s offer to liaise directly with them, with regard to these matters. We will note and publish the response.

To paraphrase what the Irish Road Haulage Association was saying, in layperson's English, is that its members know the approximate number of trucks in the country, they know the approximate number of trucks that are from outside of the State and the number of drivers who are from outside of the State. They believe that Irish domestic road hauliers, because they registered here and are resident here, are far easier to be picked up and checked. They feel that the trucks coming in from outside of the State are not being checked to the same extent. They gave the figures whereby 7% or 8% of the checks are in respect of lorries registered outside the State or where the drivers are non-resident in the State. They pointed out the difficulties with enforcement. They have succeeded in some litigation in getting enforcement against some of the hauliers. Obviously, by definition, it is more difficult to get a judgment against a driver who is from another European country. There are difficulties. The Irish hauliers believe they get a harder time than the foreign trucks and the foreign truck drivers. It is all there.

The one thing that was a little bit difficult, and people may comment, is what the Road Safety Authority then kind of says. If the Irish Road Haulage Association supplies evidence to the Road Safety Authority such as the name of the truck, the date of the truck, where the truck left and where it was going to and who was driving it, the authority will investigate the matter. The details nearly even include the driver's date of birth and where the lorry owner is incorporated. It is an unreasonable request, I think, to ask the Irish Road Haulage Association to do that level of investigation. There is a little bit of toing and froing between them. I do not know how further we can take this matter. We are going to publish it, send it to the Irish Road Haulage Association and suggest that they continue their meetings. I think that is fair. We have gone as far as we can.We have elucidated the issue quite a bit.