Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 9, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:

"1.—The Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following new section 15A:

"15A.—(1) In any year of assessment where monies are paid to any state or other body in respect of which the individual making such payments would be entitled to a tax credit or an allowance for income tax the Minister for Finance may direct that such state or other body shall make a return of such payments made by such persons in such format and shall be determined by regulations as shall be made by the Minister for Finance to enable a tax credit or deduction to be made or allowed.

(2) In respect of any such information provided to the Offices of the Revenue Commissioners no liability shall attach to the Office of the Revenue Commissioners or otherwise for failing to provide such tax credit or allowance to the person who made the payment.".".

I do not intend to dwell long on this because we have discussed the substance of it with Deputy Burton's amendment No. 1. This amendment is designed to encourage the Minister to open up areas where a form of refund at source could be operated in respect of tax allowable expenditure. One such area concerns bin tax which, we are told, almost 1 million people are now paying, although the Minister's own figures indicate that only 164,000 are claiming tax relief. That suggests that 836,000 did not get tax relief in 2003. As many Deputies on this side of the House have indicated, that is not fair play and a more proactive approach is needed by the Government in identifying unclaimed tax relief and making refunds easier to obtain.

During the debate on Deputy Burton's amendment, I made suggestions to the Minister and was disappointed that other than a vague agreement that they would be useful, he made no commitment on making authoritative estimates of the level of underpayment, making easy claim systems available when allowances are sent to people or allowing medical relief for sensible measures such as preventive optical or dental care, which are currently deemed not allowable because of their routine nature. I will not labour the point because other amendments need to be discussed but a provision along these lines ought to be adopted by the Government.

See this speech in context