Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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157. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide an explanation for the systems error occurring in the collection of property tax direct debits this year; the extent and numbers of citizens affected by this oversight; and if he will provide assurances to the public that they will not have to undergo this unnecessary anxiety again when they have to pay this tax next year. [39177/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the introduction of the Local Property Tax (LPT) represented a significant administrative challenge which included the building of an entirely new property register and the provision of a wide variety of payment options to cater for as many individual circumstances as possible. One of the payment options was direct debit and some 179,000 persons opted to pay their LPT liabilities via this method. The vast majority of these taxpayers (98%) are having payments debited from their bank accounts on a monthly basis without any difficulties. However, Revenue experienced initial technical difficulties in processing approximately 4,000 (2%) of debits during July and August, which resulted in money not being deducted as mandated. These technical issues have been identified and resolved in almost all cases and it is anticipated that the very small number of outstanding cases will be resolved within the next three weeks at the latest. All the taxpayers affected have been contacted directly by Revenue and alternative arrangements have been agreed where requested.

While it was unfortunate that the technical difficulty arose, I am satisfied that Revenue has done everything to rectify the problem as quickly as possible and has ensured the appropriate levels of customer communication occurred.