Ray Butler (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to speak about Revenue offices, in particular the reception areas in these offices. I dealt with an elderly lady who had a pension from Germany and she needed to get documentation to fill out the form she gets yearly from Germany. When she rang up the Revenue office, she found it would take five weeks to get an appointment so I decided to bring her to the Revenue office in Navan to get the form filled out. When we arrived at the office, the reception area was closed, the doors were shut and there were big signs on the doors basically saying "Ring this number". However, it takes five weeks to get an appointment.

This is very unfair to people who might have pensions in other countries and who get forms to fill out every year. There is often a time limit in such countries so these pensions could be stopped. In addition, if people want to get on the housing waiting list and need forms signed to get HAP or they are homeless, they have to wait at least five weeks before they can get into the tax office to speak to somebody. Thankfully, we got in that day and when we got in, we were looked after. However, we had to wait for somebody else to come out of the office after a meeting.

It is scandalous to think the reception areas in Revenue offices are closed and this is the new policy all over the country. The personal touch is gone from Revenue. While some people might be happy that the front door of the Revenue office is closed, if the organisation is providing a service, this is a disgrace. We should ask the Minister to come to the House and reverse this decision. We want the doors open and we want people to go in and out of Revenue reception areas and get the service they used to get.