Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I welcome and endorse this timely, opportune and valid Labour Party motion and agree with the thrust of Senator McDowell and Senator O'Meara's remarks in that regard. I am galled by the manner in which the Revenue Commissioners wastes so much time and resources investigating the small taxpayer. In my previous capacity as a Deputy and currently as a Senator I have been approached in my clinics by 20 or 25 people who received forms and queries in triplicate from the Revenue Commissioners regarding the holding of overseas bank accounts. I know the individuals concerned, some of whom are in receipt of small farmers benefit and non-contributory old age pensions. The majority of them have never worked outside the country or, if they did, they worked on building sites and returned here and invested whatever small savings they had for a rainy day. In none of the cases with which I have dealt and on behalf of which I have contacted the Revenue Commissioners is there any evidence of overseas bank accounts. When they replied to the Revenue Commissioners' queries, they received another series of registered letters in triplicate which frightened them. In some cases, the people concerned were suicidal as a result of the constant barrage of queries, yet there was no evidence to substantiate the claim.

The Minister of State said that since 1996 some 28 companies have been convicted of a variety of serious tax offences, six of them in the past 12 months. In 11 cases, prison sentences were imposed, seven of which were suspended. There have been only 28 prosecutions during the past seven years plus. That is derisory. We are speaking here of criminal prosecutions. The Minister of State referred in his contribution to "serious tax offences" yet prison sentences in seven of the 11 cases mentioned were suspended. Were any of the people involved in the other four cases ever sent to prison? Will they go to prison? Are they currently in prison? While 28 convictions were obtained, prison sentences were imposed in only 11 cases, seven of which were suspended. What happened in the other 17 cases? If the offences committed were serious, the people concerned should have received custodial sentences as in the case of Lester Pigott.