Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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55. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost to date in 2017 and estimated cost annually of the Revenue Commissioners' use of an outsourced call centre to handle queries regarding the local property tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10993/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that the outsourced Local Property Tax (LPT) Helpline plays a major role in achieving year on year compliance rates of circa 97% for the tax. The Helpline also played a key role in the collection by Revenue of over €65m in Household Charge (HHC) arrears in respect of 360,000 properties.

The outsourced model provides Revenue with a flexible, cost effective solution that can be scaled up or down to meet the unpredictable customer service demand of LPT. For example, the Helpline can very quickly increase its capacity from a minimum of 30 operators to a peak of 200 operators as the need arises. It would not be possible for Revenue to provide the required level of support for such a large customer base from its own resources without negatively impacting on other core services.

Revenue publishes payment data on a quarterly basis and the cost of the outsourced LPT Helpline for the first quarter of 2017 will be published in April.  The costs of the service in the years 2013 to 2016 are set out in the following table.