asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware of the serious delays that are taking place in the Estate Duty Office; whether he is satisfied that sufficient staff are available to do the work in that Office; and, if not, if he will take steps immediately to make certain that public business can be dealt with without undue delay.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Estate Duty Office Delays.
11.
The staffing position of the Estate Duty Branch is at present under special examination by the Revenue Commissioners. I am not, however, aware that serious delays are taking place in this Branch. If the Deputy will bring to my attention any particular cases he may have in mind I shall have them investigated.
It is well known in Dublin that there are very serious delays involved and that these delays are occurring, notwithstanding the courtesy of officials in the office who do take cases out of their turn where pressed to do so, that the delays run up to six or eight months for replies to be given to queries and that, in consequence, the Minister himself— and I do not understand why he is happy about this—is losing substantial sums of money by way of interest on duty. Would it not be far better to arrange that there could be a reasonably quick service to the public rather than that we should be drifting on as we have been in the Estate Duty Office with things getting worse every week for the past nine months?
If expedition would mean more money for me, I am all for it.
It would. Is the Minister aware that from the time documents are lodged, he has to forgo interest on the duty, and where cases are left for six months, he loses the interest for six months and the people concerned are also losing because they are not able to deal with the assets?
Estate duty is a fairly complicated matter and its administration is in many cases difficult and tedious, but, as I said in my reply, the staffing position is under special examination at the moment. I would be just as anxious as the Deputy that there should be no undue delay, particularly if I am losing interest.
Everybody knows that for the past six months they have been short-staffed and why was the matter not under consideration before?