Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome the progress made in this area. There is an issue of proportionality. Under the Revenue powers group recommendations the Minister was to come in with some recommendations on the gradation of powers. This related to the powers moving from audit to investigation to prosecution, and that there would be some test of reasonableness along the route. Is that coming through?

Apropos of Revenue powers, it has been stated to me that as there is a new revenue power to look at bank accounts, it could potentially be used to check on SSIA holders to see if they borrowed money to keep up the SSIA payments, compromising their savings scheme and making the entire amount liable for tax. Can we be assured that these powers will always be used in a reasonable way and that this type of action could not come out of the woodwork in future?

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