Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"—noting the substantive new powers granted to the Revenue Commissioners in successive Finance Acts since 1999;

—noting the determination of the Government to take the necessary steps to combat tax evasion;

—noting the success of the Revenue Commissioners in pursuing non-compliance through various means as evidenced by the yields from special investigations of over €2 billion since 1998;

—noting that the Revenue Commissioners' normal audit programme each year continues to recover increasing amounts of tax, together with interest and penalties;

—noting that the Revenue Commissioners are prosecuting an increasing number of cases of serious tax evasion each year before the courts;

—noting also, the significant number of summary prosecutions that are brought by the Revenue Commissioners each year for matters such as filing incorrect returns, the illegal sale of tobacco, cigarette smuggling, various excise and licensing offences;

—noting the success of the Revenue Commissioners' debt collection and reduction programmes where debt now stands at a historically low level of 2.5% of gross collection compared to 30% in the late 1980s and 15% in the mid-1990s;

—noting that there can be valid reasons for the write off of uncollectible debt by the Revenue Commissioners and that all such write offs are in accordance with protocols agreed with the Comptroller and Auditor General;

calls on the Government to continue to take all necessary measures to build on the new levels of compliance with tax legislation achieved since 1997."

If one were to believe the motion, one would have a picture of a draconian social welfare system grinding the poor and, on the other hand, a lax tax system turning a blind eye to everything and everyone. That is a political caricature.

Let us deal with the so-called facts that are presented in the first line of the motion. It refers to 36 people being sentenced to terms of imprisonment. It does not mention, of course, that 26 of those sentences were suspended; therefore, 36 people were not imprisoned for that period. The motion refers to social welfare fraud amounting to €1 million and, technically, the Opposition is connecting it to the 259 figure. However, the Department of Social and Family Affairs claims to have saved €386 million in overpayments, although all those overpayments are not necessarily fraud, with 7,000 employers reviewed. That is in the context of a total social welfare bill of €12 billion.

There is an effort to administer the social welfare system in a humane way. Even where people are convicted of fraud, for example, they have families who will continue to need payments. Approximately 5% of cases are prosecuted out of a total of 10,000 cases of overpayment. In many cases it is difficult to recover benefit. People who go to prison, and I am not necessarily defending that, are there for a matter of weeks, sometimes even days. Obviously there are certain categories of people who by no stretch of the imagination are near the borderline. I refer to criminals, and there are four social welfare officers attach to the CAB, or other people from whom civil recovery can be made. What one would not have learned from the promoters of the motion is that 159 people were fined and only ten were sent to prison. I am not disputing the entire Opposition argument but I will come back to it when I have examined the Revenue side of it.

One would think from listening to the Opposition Members that prison was the only recourse available to the State to deal with tax evasion. However, approximately 200 names appear on lists at quarterly intervals and some of these people have to pay large sums of money. A sum of €9 million was mentioned in the last list. Senator Ryan said he is generally not keen on sending people to prison. He is, perhaps, a little keener on sending wealthy people to prison.