John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

The collection of taxes and the issue of attachment orders are the responsibility of the Revenue Commissioners. It is therefore not appropriate for me to comment on the execution of, or the administrative arrangements applying to attachment orders.

Neither the Tánaiste nor I have had discussions with the Revenue Commissioners or with the Department of Finance in respect of attachment orders nor are we working on any proposals relating to attachment orders.

On a broader front, the Tánaiste has had discussions with ISME and SFA, and I also met the SFA last week on a range of issues, including access to finance, which are impacting on SMEs arising from the current economic difficulties.

Discussions between the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan and discussions between my Department and the Department of Finance at official level, have focused on addressing difficulties arising in accessing bank credit and ensuring that the banking system continues to play an appropriate role in supporting the SME sector. Over the past week, there have been several announcements by Irish banks of making special funding available to SMEs. In addition, as recently confirmed by the European Investment Bank, several Irish banks are in contact with the EIB seeking to draw down funding available under the EIB's €30 billion fund for assisting small and medium size enterprises. The EIB has anticipated that funding will probably be drawn down during the first quarter of 2009. I welcome these positive developments which should facilitate greater availability of finance to the SME sector.

All taxpayers and businesses have an obligation to meet their tax liabilities in a timely manner. A delay in the collection of revenues due impacts on the level and timeliness of financial resources available to the Government and facilitates those who, by withholding tax payments and using those moneys to improve cash flow, attempt to gain unfair competitive advantage. The Revenue Commissioners only resort to attachment orders in respect of taxpayers who purposely default in their payment obligations. The average number of attachment orders for the three-year period 2005 to 2007, was 2,269, in the context of 250,000 small enterprises.

The Revenue Commissioners' consistent message to taxpayers who experience a problem in meeting their tax obligations is to contact Revenue at the earliest possible time to work towards resolving the issue, therefore avoiding the necessity of deploying collection enforcement measures. The specific question of attachment orders did not arise in recent discussions between the Tánaiste and ISME and the Small Firms Association.

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