Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 67: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will give guidance to the Revenue Commissioners on the way they should approach taxpayers in relation to taxation matters; and his views on the way the recent debacle between the Revenue Commissioners and pensioners could be best avoided in future. [3065/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Communications between the Revenue Commissioners and members of the public are the responsibility of the Commissioners and they use a variety of methods and means to explain the many complexities of taxation. The Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners has already explained at the recent Joint Oireachtas Committee meeting that due to the short timeframe available to update the PAYE records of DSP pension recipients from receipt of the information from DSP in time for the start of 2012, the standard of service that we come to expect from Revenue was not met on this occasion. The Chairman went on further at the Committee meeting to publicly apologise for the distress caused to some people on receipt of the letters concerned.

Lastly, as also indicated at the Joint Committee meeting, the Revenue Commissioners advise that they will be reviewing their approach to communications in light of the issues raised following on from the issue of the letters to DSP pension recipients and they will be working with Age Action and the Irish Senior Citizen's Parliament as well as other groups representing pensioners and other DSP pension recipients to identify how they can improve their communications with that group.