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

I thank the Minister. With the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's indulgence, I will segue to another important issue. The Revenue online service, ROS, has again experienced problems this morning. My colleague, Deputy Brassil, raised the matter in the Chamber yesterday. I acknowledge that Revenue extended the deadline for online returns to 6 p.m. today.

I am told that the problems have now been fixed this morning after a recurrence of the issue. I want an assurance that no one will be adversely affected by these issues through the application of surcharges or any other penalty. Given that the system is clearly under pressure and struggling to take all of the returns, would it be better to extend the deadline to midnight on Friday? That would allow the returns to be spread over a further couple of days. It would allow time and space for people to get them in and for the system to have the capacity to handle them. Clearly, there is a significant issue. The first priority is to ensure no one will be penalised having tried to make a return that was unsuccessful through no fault of his own or her own.

See this speech in context