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

I will be very brief. I accept that where information is available to Revenue that leads it to conclude that a taxpayer is entitled to a credit or relief and not claiming it, it is provided automatically. Sometimes, however, the relevant information is not available to Revenue. It could be that there has been a change in circumstances, as is very often the case with the home carer credit, for example. Circumstances in a home may change. Similarly, regarding third level fees, a person may go from having one child going to college to two and people may not be aware of the change in that regard. I do not think the Revenue systems would or could be expected to pick up on this automatically. All these debates help to promote awareness of the availability of these tax reliefs and encourage the Revenue Commissioners and the Minister's Department to use every opportunity to highlight the availability of reliefs which may well be underclaimed - in my view, they are - and to promote them. It is important that people are given the right and accurate information relating to themselves.

The Minister has touched on the four-year rule. I accept that Revenue is writing to certain taxpayers to remind them that the ability to claim for reliefs dating back more than four years will fall off if they do not submit returns by the end of the year. This needs to continue because, again, people's awareness of this is quite limited. I will not press the amendment; I will withdraw it.

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