Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As was said, we discussed the question of advocacy on the various Stages of Finance Bills. I outlined the fact the Ombudsman has been able to deal with systemic and policy issues. The advocates mentioned internationally deal only with administrative matters for individual taxpayers. That does not address systemic or policy issues, many of which are within the remit of the Ombudsman's office and are not independent of it. The proliferation of more ombudsmen for every specific problem which people perceive is not the way to go, particularly as the Ombudsman has shown efficacy in this area already in view of previous reports done and changes brought about as a result of those investigations into policy areas.

I am not satisfied adding a further layer in regard to the granting of reliefs and repayment of tax would add to the efficiency of the current system. We have not heard how duplicating the existing role and responsibility of the Ombudsman in this particular respect would result in benefits to anyone involved.

There has been much proactive work in this area which, for the purposes of Report Stage, I should put on the record. The Revenue Commissioners are active in advising taxpayers of their entitlements through various media. They have recently undertaken an extensive advertising campaign in regard to various reliefs to alert taxpayers to entitlements they may have overlooked claiming. As a result of that, there has been a big improvement.

Every year the tax credit certificate issued to each PAYE customer includes an insert setting out the main allowances and reliefs available. Apart from that insert, there is an easy to access and comprehensive range of material on allowances and reliefs available on the Revenue website, from Revenue offices and by telephone together with a range of claim forms obtainable by telephone or download for completion. New on-line and text messaging self-service channels have been rolled out which make it as easy as possible for PAYE customers to establish whether they are getting the reliefs to which they are entitled and to make any additional claims relevant to their circumstances.

For those who prefer person to person communication, it is important to point out that there are over 780 PAYE customer service staff available in the regional offices to deal with taxpayers' queries, amend tax credits, process repayments, etc. That is a considerable commitment of staff on a permanent basis. Additional staff are used at peak periods when required. Where Revenue is aware of circumstances which apply beyond one year, the necessary reliefs are carried forward automatically from one year to the next.

As announced in my Budget Statement, Revenue developments this year and next year will see the introduction of DIRT-free accounts for the over 65s and incapacitated persons. That deals with one of the areas cited by Deputy Bruton. All age-related credits and credits for trade union subscriptions will be given automatically as far as possible. There will be automatic repayments in respect of certain health expenses, such as drugs and hospital charges, and in respect of tuition fees.

It is also important to point out it is not a simple exercise to try to set about estimating what unclaimed amounts there might be. The Irish Taxation Institute tried to calculate some costings for unclaimed medical expenses during its session with the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service. However, it failed to take account of the 800,000 exempt PAYE cases, the fact that one third of the population is covered by medical cards, the overlap between the aforementioned categories, the degree of full reimbursement by medical insurers and the fact that some people are healthy and only have small or no medical expenses. A purely statistical basis for steering through such difficulties to a valid conclusion is not readily apparent. Instead, the only sound approach appears to be to undertake detailed sample surveys of a large number of taxpayers. This would probably involve lengthy face to face interviews in the kind of process followed by the ESRI in its sociological research. Even with such research, which is extremely time consuming and expensive, the results would not help to direct a single cent to the right person in the form of additional tax refunds.

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