Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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189. To ask the Minister for Finance if the Revenue Commissioners expects to continue the practice of publishing income statistics; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42867/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised that the Revenue Commissioners have proactively reviewed both the content and dissemination methods for their publication of statistical information. They are moving to provide their most relevant and sought after information in new and more accessible formats for statistics across all of the taxes and duties. Whereas previously information was provided by way of static tables in documents, Revenue is now adding to this by making the statistical information available to be queried and downloaded in a range of machine readable formats. This will make it much easier for interested parties and researchers or analysts to access and use Revenue's statistics.

Statistical material for 2012 was published this summer, the information for 2013 will be published in the new format in the coming weeks on the Commissioners' Statistics webpage: .

The information on this page will then be updated in due course, as newer data become available, rather than on an annual basis as previously.

I commend the Revenue Commissioners for this initiative, as increased availability of information will enable better informed research on public policy issues in Ireland, and this also places Revenue at the forefront of the Government's Open Data initiative.