Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

First, I want to clear up one matter for the benefit of Senator Coffey. This does not apply to the self-employed. This applies to company directors and their employees who in many cases wind up with substantial salaries and have a debt left from another time which they refuse to meet. It is important that Senators understand about whom and what we speak.

There is no question of this being draconian in so far as there is not an appeals system. There is an appeals system through the Revenue appeals commissioners. They are appointed not by Revenue but by the Government. That appeals system exists and if anyone is unhappy with that, he or she has recourse to the courts. It is important that position is well known and recorded here in the House.

By and large, these tax returns due are agreed tax returns. The point is that they are not paid and are dragged out over a period. This amends what was in the 1988 Act, in which assets were involved, to extend it to income and emoluments. That is all that is involved here. It is a practical step for the State to successfully collect taxes due to it from persons who can afford to pay them. The balance is important in so far as the same opportunity is available to the people in question to go to the Revenue Commissioners who have a quasi-judicial role or to the courts if they are unhappy with that.

I am not in a position to accept the recommendation. These are persistent persons who have consistently refused to pay after all the efforts by the Revenue Commissioners. We all have responsibilities to pay our taxes. Where there is a group which found what I might call an opportunity of not paying them, we should not leave that opportunity there for them to continue not paying them. That is what this attachment is about.