Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. I wish to comment briefly on some of the other points that were raised here this evening.

I listened to Deputy Ó Cuív's comments about the need to simplify the tax code and the sharing of information between Departments, which is what underpins the public service cards. I agree with his point that if a citizen supplies information to the State, particularly when it is created by the State in the first place and then made available to the citizen, it should not be the case that the citizen must supply the same information to multiple agencies. It is a fair point and it is why the work is under way in the SAFE 2 process, where citizens who must provide information to the State receive a single digital identity which, once it is has been provided, is used by the State to ensure information is available to all Departments more quickly than it is now.

Deputy Fitzmaurice made points about agriculture, rural Ireland, transport and the challenges we face in how we can organise transport efficiently, but his key point was regarding his concern with the costs that are imposed on accounting firms as a result of PAYE modernisation, especially on smaller companies. I will take the point on board because PAYE modernisation confers an important benefit to the State overall, some of which deals with the point Deputy Ó Cuív made. I will examine whether there is any way I can raise the matter that Deputy Fitzmaurice outlined about how the modernisation could create a great deal of cost for smaller companies as a result of charges that are applied to them by accounting companies.

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