Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his reply. His figures suggest that one in five people obtain a tax review and, on average, receive a €750 refund. While I do not suggest that the remaining four out of every five would receive a similar refund, has the Minister looked hard at the take-up on various reliefs where there is likely to be under-claiming?

I have conducted a calculation exercise, without the resources available to the Minister, on the back of an envelope, so to speak. I estimate that on DIRT, approximately 5% of the refund is taken up, that is, only 5% of those eligible for a refund obtain one. These are mostly elderly people with deposit accounts. On bin charges, according to figures from the Department of Finance, approximately 15% of the relief is taken up. On medical expenses, using Central Statistics Office data on how much people spend on medical care, the take-up is approximately 20%. On rent, the take-up is around 40%. The take-up of relief rises for home carers, where the figure is approximately 75%. In this context, at least €350 million per annum of taxpayers' money is not getting back to them.

I accept that the Revenue Commissioners produce information leaflets but will the Minister charge Revenue with completing a statistical exercise to estimate how much tax relief is being taken up and how much is not? Let us obtain some hard data in this area. I believe the figures I have come up with are not very far wide of the mark and if that is the case, then over a four-year period where a look-back is possible, we are talking about €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion of taxpayers' money that is not being returned to them.

Everyone wants to see a fair tax code where people who are well off pay their way. The other side of that coin is that we want to see those who deserve it getting their money back. Will the Minister take more of an interest in returning this money to taxpayers instead of simply reciting the fact that the Revenue Commissioners do certain things and the obligation is on the taxpayer? Let us do something to return the money to where it belongs.

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