Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

With the Ceann Comhairle's permission, I will continue this theme. Is the Taoiseach aware that on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill today, the Minister has conceded that some 400,000 taxpayers out of a workforce of 2 million have not received their tax allowance and credit certificates yet? More than two months after budget day, the tax certificates for 20% of the workforce are late and have not issued yet.

The Taoiseach may be aware that all of us who are fortunate to be employed by the Houses of the Oireachtas got a communication today from the salaries unit of the personnel section of the Houses of the Oireachtas which advises:

Please be aware that an error has been encountered on the new Revenue System which has resulted in people both underpaying and overpaying tax. . . The Salaries Unit have intervened where they have discovered large discrepancies on tax certs which have issued and on the advice of the Revenue Commissioners have reverted staff to last years credits. . .

It goes on to explain the problem is in the Revenue system, not in the Houses of the Oireachtas. It would appear the Tánaiste is not the only one suffering this type of fault and incompetence.

How can it be justified that two and a half months after the budget that the tax certificates for 400,000 compliant taxpayers are late? A child care decision was announced on 7 December that cannot be implemented until August. Changes in the tax system that were to apply from 1 January have not been implemented yet. Tax certificates have not been issued yet. Social welfare changes were announced. The Minister published the Bill yesterday and purports to start the debate on it in the House today. What kind of incompetence is this and will the Taoiseach indicate how serious is the problem identified by the salaries unit of the personnel section in the Houses of the Oireachtas in the new Revenue system that has resulted in both underpaying and overpaying of tax?

If the underpayment or overpayment is large, people will notice it and act on it, but the problem lies with instances where the error is minor, as most people only check the bottom line. As we have seen from the figures supplied by Deputy Kenny in a different instance of under-claiming of entitlements, most people do not look at minor discrepancies. Is it the case that these minor discrepancies will continue for the rest of the year?

See this speech in context