Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Has the Department attempted to quantify the cost of tax fraud in the building industry, especially in regard to RCT, but also the knock-on consequences for PRSI to which this is intimately linked? Has the Department attempted to quantify the risk? Would the Minister accept independent conservative assessments which suggest the risk and the loss to Revenue is in the region of €200 million to €400 million a year based on the value of the building industry?

In the context of the answer the Minister just gave, does he believe that 35 site visits to contractors in the Dublin area is an adequate investigatory response to the level of non-compliance indicated in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report? The Comptroller and Auditor General stated that last year only 15,000 audits were carried out, of which 1,500 were in the building industry. The Minister indicated in his reply that even with enhanced resources for this year there is no significant increase in that figure. Given the value of the building industry referred to by Deputy Bruton, how is the Minister responding to the failure to protect taxpayers' interests in collecting tax due from everyone in the building industry, and not just compliant builders who are obviously put at severe disadvantage by the fraud and scams that are prevalent?

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