Results 45,141-45,160 of 46,456 for speaker:Simon Harris

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: It is helpful to put that message out. Ms Feehily referred earlier to the option of paying by cash. She indicated that the Revenue was in discussion with various service providers. I presume the Revenue is in discussion with An Post.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: Deferrals and exemptions have been mentioned. Does Revenue have an estimate of the number of people who will be eligible for an exemption?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: Can Mr. O'Leary break that down between exemptions and deferrals?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I would be interested if the Department could do so. That would be useful. My understanding is that there will be a liability on local authority housing but that the liability will be met by the local authorities. This means the Revenue will be corresponding with the local authorities in the same way as with private owners.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: That work is ongoing.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: That is interesting. The delegation has been here for one and a half hours. The property tax is probably the most pressing issue on the minds of the public but Revenue is involved in some other bits and pieces on an ongoing basis.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I would like to get a sense from the delegation of what, if anything, is suffering in Revenue as a result of the property tax. Obviously, it has presented a significant onus or task, as outlined by Ms Feehily today, and it seems to me that the Revenue is meeting it well. I hope that I will be able to say as much when Ms Feehily is next here after the tax has been implemented. What is not...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 9 - Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Chapter 7 - Audit of Revenue 2011
Chapter 8 - Revenue Outturn 2011
Chapter 9 - Revenue Debt Collection
Chapter 10 - Increasing Tax Compliance (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank Ms Feehily and her team for their attendance today. I am struck by the huge contrast between Ms Feehily's appearance today and that of officials from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in the past concerning the household charge. I assume a significant number of lessons have been learned as a result of how the campaign to collect the household charge...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I recently submitted a raft of parliamentary questions and correspondence with State agencies about the amount of money various State agencies and local authorities have on deposit. I estimate there could be up to €3 billion on deposit in hundreds of accounts throughout the country. These are public accounts and I will not read all of the figures into the record but, for example, the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: Yes, and following that we can compile information.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: When I asked these parliamentary questions, some Ministers provided all the information on the record while others asked agencies to respond to me. To date, a number of agencies with substantial budgets, notably the HSE, have failed to respond with figures.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (21 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I am not surprised by that. I have figures in excess of €2 billion, with a number of agencies with large budgets still missing. At a practical level, local authorities have overdraft facilities and I know the overdraft facility in my county is very large. People are paying a lot of money to avail of the facility and, at the same time, they may have extremely large deposits. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: May I share the last two minutes of my time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I thank Mr. Trethowan for attending; he is very welcome. It is clear his office is making a positive difference to those who access it, a point on which I imagine all committee members would agree. From the endorsements in his most recent report I note people mentioned the courtesy, help and guidance they received, and how the service far exceeded their expectations. In one endorsement Mr....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I do not believe people in County Wicklow, from where there were four applications, are less likely to come forward than the people in County Tipperary, from where there were 13. There seems to be a definite difference, county by county. I wonder if the Credit Review Office has taken or might take a look at using local advertising, getting right into communities and talking to businesses at...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: In regard to------

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: It would be interesting if Mr. Trethowan's office could look at that in terms of future reports, if there is more going on than we know about.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: I refer to some other issues. Enterprise Ireland attended the Committee of Public Accounts some weeks ago. A number of years ago it set up a banking relationship unit. The head of that unit told me at the committee that the biggest difficulty it has with banks is the lack of a skill set, to which Mr. Trethowan also referred. Enterprise Ireland specifically referred to this at the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: Mr. Trethowan spoke about the fact that although his office's rulings are not binding if a bank does not comply with them it must produce the reason for not doing so. He mentioned this might happen for technical reasons. How many of the rulings granted have not been complied with?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Simon Harris: Is the small number less than ten?