Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the amendment that the Minister, Deputy Noonan, brought forward, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, elaborated on how it will work in practice where one parent can relinquish the credit to the other parent and he confirmed that the consent will be required of the primary claimant. It is important to acknowledge that many relationships end fairly badly and, unfortunately, such consent may not be forthcoming in many cases.

On the second issue of the possible division of the credit which would have been a good step which would have obviated some of the worst aspects of this decision, the Minister of State gives two main reasons it cannot be done. First, he stated it would involve in some way transgressing the confidentiality of one person's taxation affairs, essentially, by letting the other person know that he or she did not use all of the credit. The Minister of State could include the consent provision there. That would certainly deal with that.

Second, the Minister of State stated it would be difficult to deal with administratively. I do not believe it would be. It might mean, for example, that somebody would have a time lag of one year in arrears with which he or she could deal by way of seeking a P21 balancing statement and he or she could get the credit the following year for the unused portion that the other parent did not claim for the previous year. That is eminently doable.

The Minister of State confirmed in the course of the discussion a tight and strict interpretation. The impression given that he has moved considerably from the original draft of the Bill does not stand up to scrutiny. He is saying that one person can transfer the credit in full to another person if he or she so consents, fills up a form and sends it off to the Revenue. I would suspect that not many will fall into that neat little category.

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