Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister. I appreciate it.

The mandatory reporting on bank accounts is over the top in terms of personal freedoms and so on and I wonder where it will stop. The Minister might examine a number of issues in this context. He is not very long in the job but he is making shapes in the right direction.

The discrepancies that appear in terms of different means tests and treatments of accounts for different scenarios bug me on a regular basis. For example, if I run a taxi business, lease a taxi rather than own it and return my accounts for the taxi business to Revenue, it will tell me that I have run my business properly, what expenses are allowable and that my income is €20,000. If I have a child going to higher education and send in my accounts approved by Revenue and stating my income to my local authority to ask for a higher education grant, it will tell me that this is not the situation. Revenue might believe I have an income of €20,000 but the local authority knows that I have leased my taxi and will add the money I am paid for it as an income.

In marginal situations this could put a family above the threshold to qualify for higher education grants, which is unfair. Where Revenue agrees there is legitimate expenditure by way of leasing, why should a local authority — in fact, it is the Department of Education and Science — not recognise leasing in accounts? In effect, the Department is telling Revenue that it does not trust it to do its job well. This matter should be ironed out.

Another example would be for me to be a self-employed person on a relatively low income looking for a family income supplement, FIS. The Minister is from a rural area and will be aware of many people operating small post offices and shops who are on relatively low incomes. If that income is PAYE, they would qualify for FIS. However, as soon as they put in their applications and state that they are self-employed, the answer is no, they should forget it as they cannot have it. In other words, the Department of Social and Family Affairs is saying that it does not trust the Revenue, that they are not able to do their business. The low income of the person in question might be recognised by Revenue but the Department does not recognise it. This is not fair. The Government is treating people differently. This situation should not continue.

In the same vein, the Minister should examine what happens in terms of assessing capital for various schemes. There is no uniform approach. If one is looking for an old age non-contributory pension, there is an income disregard of €20,000 of capital. If one is looking for a nursing home subvention, there is an income threshold of €7,500. Anything over that amount counts in income terms. Why can we not standardise these types of income disregards, which would be fair in this day and age?

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