Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 129: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the inability of the new CAT form, CA24, to be completed on-line and if a system compatible with the Revenue On-line System can be developed. [25238/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that Finance Act 2010 introduced significant changes to modernise and simplify the probate process and Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) administration.

A key element of the change is the abolition of the requirement to present two copies of the Inland Revenue Affidavit (Form CA24) to the Revenue Commissioners, in connection with the issue of a High Court certificate, prior to submitting the Inland Revenue Affidavit to the Probate Office. The two copies of the Inland Revenue Affidavit are now submitted directly to the Probate Office, which then forwards one copy to Revenue when the Grant of Representation is issued.

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the opportunity was taken, as part of the modernisation and simplification of CAT administration, to re-design the Inland Revenue Affidavit to facilitate scanning and the information sought is primarily unchanged.

Neither the old nor the new versions of the Inland Revenue Affidavit is capable of being filed on-line using a system similar to Revenue's On-line System (ROS). To provide for such a system, the Courts Service would have to develop an appropriate secure IT platform. However, putting the Inland Revenue Affidavit in an on-line environment will be kept under review by Revenue and the Courts Service in the context of the development and roll-out of e-Government services over the coming years.