Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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181. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 178 and 179 of 10 June 2014, the number of visits to building sites carried out by officials of the Revenue Commissioners wherein the capital expenditure provided for the projects is State funded in the years 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; and the site visits which were undertaken jointly with relevant officers from the Department of Social Protection and from the National Employment Rights Authority. [25909/14]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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182. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 178 and 179 of 10 June 2014, the number of officials from the Revenue Commissioners involved in the hidden economy monitoring group and in the joint investigation units in place which work in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection. [25910/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 181 and 182 together.

As I informed the deputy last week, the Hidden Economy Monitoring Group is a non-statutory multi-agency group, the primary focus of which is to provide a forum for participants to exchange views on combatting shadow economy activity.  The Hidden Economy Monitoring Group does not have statutory functions nor does it have statutory powers and the number of Revenue staff that attends the meetings has no bearing on the number of Revenue staff involved in audits and investigations.  I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the number of their staff that attends meetings of the Hidden Economy Monitoring Group varies from time to time and that, at the most recent meeting of that Group, apart from the Chair and secretary, six Revenue staff from various locations attended that meeting.  As I understand matters, the Revenue Commissioners will shortly have a dedicated section on their website about the shadow economy and a specific webpage on the role of the Hidden Economy Monitoring Group. 

The assignment of Revenue staff to various functions is a matter for the Revenue Commissioners who have advised me that Revenue is an integrated tax and customs administration with around 2,000 staff assigned to audit, investigation and compliance activity.  The Commissioners accord a very high priority to compliance activity.  Notwithstanding reductions in staff resources in recent years, these numbers have been maintained and the Commissioners are committed to ensuring that this work will continue to be resourced to the maximum extent possible.

Data are not maintained on the total number of Revenue staff who engage with the Department of Social Protection on compliance activities in any given year but the number would be significant and in excess of 30 officers are formally assigned to Joint Investigation duties.

As regards the number of visits to construction sites wherein the capital expenditure provided for the projects is State funded, and as regards the number of such visits undertaken jointly with officers from the Department of Social Protection and from the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA), I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that their officers visit a wide range of businesses, venues and sites annually in their on-going campaign to tackle shadow economy activity. However, given the wide range of businesses visited annually, the number of visits to particular types of businesses is not separately recorded.

On a more general note, the Revenue Commissioners have provided the following data as regards visits to businesses carried out by Revenue staff either solely or jointly with officers from the Department of Social Protection and/or NERA.