Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Pearse Doherty and I had a reasonable discussion on this on Committee Stage. At that stage, when talking about what happens in Scotland, I made a commitment that one of my political advisers would examine this without prejudice and we would see where we could go. I will include this matter also and ask him to examine it and see if we can go forward on it. As a general proposition, I agree that things must change. The budgetary rules will change anyway, driven by the European Union, and our budget will be earlier this year, sometime in the middle of October. I will take proposals to the Government on how we move towards that and will keep in mind what the Deputies have said.

It can be frustrating to be in Opposition at times and it is very hard to get data on certain occasions. At other times one is swamped with data. With the little help that Opposition Deputies have, making sense of data is often a problem in itself. With regard to the Revenue Commissioners answering parliamentary questions or saying they do not have the data accumulated in a particular way or a way that can be released, that is not my experience. I clear my written parliamentary questions personally, a couple of hundred of them every week.

It is very seldom that I do not have a full answer. I would not come across such an instance each day. I might come across one each week. Usually, my answer is that the information requested is not to hand because not enough time has been available to put it together. I generally say I will put it together and communicate it to the relevant Deputy by letter. Some Deputies such as Deputy Pearse Doherty table many questions to help them with their research. The Deputy can vouch that I usually give very full answers and that I communicate by letter subsequently if the data are not compiled within a short period of time. I think the data are available now. Details of personal and company taxation cannot be revealed because they are confidential. When somebody tables a question seeking details about a specific taxpayer or a small group of taxpayers in a way that would make an individual identifiable, he or she does not receive these details. That is the way the Revenue Commissioners operate. We might return to this issue. I will get the political adviser I have in mind to call Deputy Pearse Doherty to discuss what he wants and we will see where we can go. I agree with him in principle that the way we do our business is unsatisfactory. While I would not say there is no proper scrutiny, I accept that frequently the Opposition is not given sufficient information to do the job it is supposed to be doing.

The Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, will now take over from me. I ask Deputies to excuse me, as I have to leave.

See this speech in context