Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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368. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if his attention has been drawn to a settlement between a State agency (details supplied) and the Revenue Commissioners; if there are any agencies under his Department’s remit that have had a similar issue or have made a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in relation to any issue in the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48019/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department has made the following settlements with the Revenue Commissioners in the last 5 years:

The settlements in question were reached following a comprehensive internal Departmental review and co-operative compliance with the Revenue Commissioners. The settlements mainly covered historical liabilities for certain accommodation and medical arrangements in relation to the Permanent Defence Force (PDF). Many of the arrangements in question were in place since the foundation of the State. The Finance Act 2018 exempted the medical and accommodation issues in question from benefit in kind (BIK) for members of the PDF with effect from 1 January 2018. The settlement in 2020 relates to BIK in relation to statutory hospital charges for the dependants of enlisted members of the PDF in 2019.

I note from the details supplied and your further clarification that issues arose in the case referred to with regard to overpayments. In this regard, I have set out below the details of overpayments in the Defence Organisation over the last 5 years:

Overpayments breakdown 2016-2020:

The above figures include Defence Forces' personnel, civil servants and civilian employees. In some of these instances, overpayments are unavoidable (i.e. an inherent overpayment) as the relevant information may not be received by the Department prior to the payroll closedown date, which is in advance of the date of payment. As a result, it is unavoidable that a number of overpayments occur on the payroll. There are processes and procedures in place to minimise overpayments, to identify and recoup those that do occur and to manage those overpayments.

The amount of overpayments written off in the same 5 year period is as follows:

The only State body under the aegis of my Department is the Army Pensions Board. The Army Pensions Board is an independent statutory body established under the Army Pensions Act 1927 to provide for the payment of pensions, allowances and gratuities in certain circumstances to members of the Defence Forces.No overpayments arose in respect of the Army Pensions Board over this period.