Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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186. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of single debit authority payments for the local property tax which were not completed due to problems with implementation of SEPA; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17612/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that it received in excess of 380,000  Single Debit Authority (SDA) payment instructions in respect of 2014 Local Property Tax (LPT) liabilities. In the vast majority of cases the SDA deductions took place as scheduled on 21 March 2014 without any difficulties. However in approximately 7,000 cases, which is less than 2% of the total amount of mandates received, the deduction failed to take place. There were a number of reasons why some of the mandates did not activate and deduct the amounts due on 21 March as scheduled. In some instances the IT systems failed to recognise and validate the SEPA formatted numbers, while in other instances the failure was due to customer error rather than anything to do with SEPA. The most common types of customer errors included liable persons quoting deposit account numbers rather than current account numbers, misquoting digits in the account number thereby rendering the mandate invalid, or by quoting account numbers that were subsequently closed down and not providing Revenue with an alternative current account number.

Revenue has acknowledged to me that it did receive notification of some current account number changes in the run-up to the due date but the information arrived too close to the 21 March deadline for it to make the necessary adjustments. Revenue did clarify throughout its communications in regard to LPT payment methods that any SDA bank account amendments would have to be received at least 7 working days in advance of 21 March to be effected. Where SDA mandates failed to deduct the amount due on 21 March, Revenue notified the account holders and advised them to make contact with their financial institution to clarify the situation. Revenue also posted a notice on its website in regard to the issue, again advising people to contact their financial institution. The notice also provided information on alternative payment methods for LPT.