Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In the record of year-end information on public servants and employment levels, the Revenue Commissioners are recorded as having 6,000 public servants last year and they are expected to continue with this number. There has been extraordinary success with the Ansbacher and DIRT inquiries etc. conducted by the Revenue Commissioners, which have to date, brought in more than €2 billion. This is despite the Minister's predecessor, Mr. Charlie McCreevy, on record stating that there was no pot of gold with regard to unpaid taxes. He was shown to be absolutely wrong.

Does the Minister accept, given that so many taxpayers file returns by self-assessment, that the number of random audits being carried out is way below what it should be if we compare it to the number in the United States, for example? Does the Minister accept that where people evade their proper taxes, despite most of our tax rates being quite low, the end result is to rob the health and education services of necessary funding to provide proper services?

Has the Minister any proposals to consider the resources allocated to the Revenue Commissioners with a view to expansion? This should be examined particularly in the context of what occurred last year with Gama and what has been disclosed this year with regard to various agency employers, which still appear to be able to fly below the radar of complying with tax and welfare obligations.

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