Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. A role for an independent ombudsman for taxpayers has been developed in a large number of other jurisdictions, including the United States. I have seen such offices in operation in other countries and was impressed. Primarily, such an office is to instil in taxpayers a sense of confidence that the taxation system is fair and that actions by the taxation authorities can be addressed impartially, such that the taxpayer can have a reasonable explanation as to what is happening.

I must acknowledge that since I introduced this idea a number of years ago in debates on Finance Bills, the Revenue Commissioners improved many of their information systems very substantially. They have been to the fore in developing new information mechanisms, such as texting and a range of on-line services, all of which are very welcome. Nonetheless, a confidence issue arises in respect of taxation in Ireland and it has never gone away. This issue concerns the fact that if one is wealthy and can afford to employ an accountant or taxation expert to file one's tax returns, compile claims for one and interact with the Revenue Commissioners on one's behalf, one will inevitably organise one's tax affairs far more favourably than one who cannot do so, either because he or she is in the PAYE sector or because he or she is a small business person who does not have the resources to invest in expensive advice on taxation.

The role of an office such as the one I propose is to build confidence in the fairness of the administration of the taxation system. The Minister is making a mistake in not acknowledging that the role of the Ombudsman's office in this regard is important. Tens of thousands of people in Ireland have invested in Irish banks. In many cases, they did so not simply to make a profit but out of a sense of patriotism. They invested in other Irish equities and, to be honest, many of those investments are shredded. The taxation implications of this for individuals are complex but very significant and important. There will be people seeking information on the consequences of the dramatic fall in the value of bank shares and the impact of this fall on their tax affairs. Significant investors with the resources to employ accountants and tax advisers will be in one position, while those with much more modest means will simply have to shrug their shoulders and take the hit. The same thing happened, as the Minister may recall, when Eircom was privatised. Many people wanted to invest some money for a period of time as a saving, rather than to make a profit, but because they did not short the stocks they lost money. Given that many of them did not invest in other shares, the losses they incurred went unrecognised for tax purposes. Of course tax law must be administered, but we have one situation for people who are well off and have a battery of advisers and another for ordinary taxpayers.

The greatest difficulties are being suffered not just by the shareholders who have lost much of their investment in banks - particularly those who were using the investment either as retirement funding or as a nest egg, for whom the Government's failure to regulate banking properly has led to catastrophic losses - but by the significant number of people who have been working in the construction industry on certificates for the last ten or more years. They have worked hard, are perhaps in their mid-30s, having gone into the building trade in their teens, and now find themselves without employment. Their tax affairs are to some extent in arrears, but when they make a social welfare claim or claim for other assistance they find it is an extremely complicated and lengthy process. In such cases a taxpayers' advocate, setting out clearly the ground rules, would be very helpful. Instead, people start at the social welfare office and are told that a social welfare application will not be entertained unless their tax affairs are in order. This is a fair point. However, it takes them some time to achieve this. They may then register with FÁS but, similarly, until they are in the social welfare system, nothing much more can happen for them.

The system is sclerotic and slow. We should be trying to move people who have lost employment into anything else that is available, or back into study and training, as rapidly as possible. However, at the moment, our systems are very slow. Many of the people who are find themselves in this position are well used to sorting things out online, but they find that in the maze of the social welfare and FÁS system - if they are interested in doing courses in insulation or similar - everything takes weeks, and before one knows it, one is out of work for several months, which turns into half a year. We must prevent people being caught in the trap of unemployment. The role of the Revenue Commissioners here is to ensure that people who were self-employed in the construction industry but are no longer actively employed in that trade are encouraged and that their tax affairs are sorted out as rapidly as possible so they can move on to whatever other opportunities are available.

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners has done much work in improving the information available, but it should come together with representatives of the social welfare system and FÁS to see how they can make it easier for people to quickly complete the required processes in order to move on to the next stage, whether it is a FÁS course, going back to college, going into other employment or receiving social welfare support. We are all talking to people on the doorsteps at the moment, and this issue comes up time and again. Having gone through the social welfare maze, people then find they must go to FÁS, and the response of FÁS varies considerably in different offices. It can be difficult. People are told to go to FÁS websites but when they do they find the courses are not in operation or are already full. Everybody has had that experience.

The purpose of a taxpayers' advocate would be to ensure, as part of an overall State effort, that the State assists people in becoming as active as possible in sorting out their tax affairs and getting fair treatment from the tax authorities. In situations of mass unemployment, it should help them sort out their tax affairs so they may move on to other things. We should remember that getting one's tax affairs in order is a preliminary to obtaining social welfare. When appropriately registered, one gains access to various entitlements under FÁS schemes. It is a domino effect. This is where we need an advocate's office which would review processes with an advocate's eye and consider how we can make them better. In this way we can help people who have become unemployed or are threatened with unemployment to find out their entitlements.

Last year I moved an amendment to the Finance Bill with regard to tax deductions on redundancy payments, which the Minister accepted. In this way part of the redundancy payment was used for specified educational courses. However, that has hardly been advertised and there is little information about it. It is difficult to explain who is entitled to this. Big companies, particularly multinationals, who bring in FÁS as part of the process of making redundancy deals are well versed in it, but the ordinary person is not. There is a significant role for a body that would provide information about how people becoming unemployed, particularly those who were self-employed, can interact rapidly with the tax system, sort out their liabilities and move on.

Another important issue at the moment is that of cashflow in business. The Office of the Revenue Commissioners is being quite understanding and I know it must walk a fine line between being understanding of genuine cases and being taken for a ride by people who might try to abuse the system. However, a source of information would be of significant help to people and allow them to be realistic about what they can do to manage their affairs as well as possible and, above all, to stay in employment or in business, if they are in small business.

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