Mr. Niall Cody:

If one enters into a settlement with the Revenue which is publishable because the tax, interest and penalty thresholds are met and one enters into an instalment arrangement to clear the debt, we do not record that as an uncollected debt. Rather, it is treated as payable. We discussed this two years ago. Prior to the Finance Act 2010, the name of a defaulter could not be published if he or she did not pay. For the name of a defaulter to be published, it was required that there be a settlement with tax, interest and penalties above 15% and that the amount had been paid. That was fine while the economy was going well as we generally got our money. After the economic crash, a number of people met the tax, interest and penalty thresholds but were unable to pay any of the debt. Their names could not be published but those of persons who paid their debts could. The Finance Act 2010 changed that. Thereafter, we published the names of defaulters who could not pay. The process was further changed in 2016 such that we now identify within the list those who did not pay. From 2010 until 2016, the names of defaulters were published and everybody thought all debts were paid.