Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Revenue Commissioners normally issue guidance notes where matters such as this arise. Those are then dealt with by the professional associations, which normally have a good relationship with the Revenue Commissioners, who can sit down with them and go through whatever issues are causing problems to see if matters can be dealt with without amending legislation. Revenue decisions can be appealed to the courts if people feel strongly enough that there is no legal basis for the interpretation they are giving, be that in the Revenue courts or the civil courts.

In respect of how matters are interpreted, it would be best to have the professional associations interact with senior personnel in the Revenue Commissioners to find out the basis for this and their justification.

See this speech in context