asked the Minister for Finance the conditions relating to the confidentiality governing dealings with the Revenue Commissioners and the payment of taxes generally; and if he will make a statement on public disquiet, in this respect, arising from recent statements specifically detailing financial aspects of specific taxation dealings.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Confidentiality of Tax Dealings.
9.
Statutory obligations under the Taxes Acts and section 4 of the Official Secrets Act, 1963 are imposed on officers of the Revenue Commissioners with regard to confidentiality concerning the tax affairs of taxpayers. I am assured by the Revenue Commissioners that all staff in that office are fully aware of their obligations with regard to confidentiality.
In general the statutory obligations require that no information provided for the purposes of an assessment for tax may be disclosed. Exclusions from the requirement of total confidentiality have been statutorily provided for in cases where it has proven necessary, such as the provision of information to the Ombudsman, and to the Minister for Health and Social Welfare for the purposes of the pay-related social insurance scheme. In addition section 23 of the 1983 Finance Act provides for the annual publication of a list of persons or companies who have been convicted of tax offences or who have made back-duty settlements in excess of £10,000, where a full voluntary disclosure has not been made.
As regards the second part of the question it is not clear what the Deputy has in mind and if he will be good enough to let me have the particulars of any case where, in his opinion, a breach of confidentiality has occurred, I will have the matter investigated.
Would the Minister have a look at recent public statements relating to alleged refunds made by officials in his Department to people who had apparently paid tax late? The case to which I have referred was well covered by the media. The point I want the Minister to comment on is this: to what extent could there be public comment of so specific a nature as to be able to itemise the number of cheques allegedly returned and, implicitly, the amounts involved, unless those details were obtained from files or unless somebody had access to the data contained in the area of jurisdiction of the Revenue Commissioners? If that happened it would be a matter for public concern.
I suspect I know what the Deputy has in mind, but if I do it is a matter which is not directly for the Revenue Commissioners but for the courts. Without checking it, much of the information that would be made available that way is published information. I repeat that if the Deputy has a specific case where he fears a breach of confidentiality might have occurred I will certainly investigate it.
I am grateful to the Minister for his invitation to approach him on this matter in this way and I will, but I want to know if he is satisfied that there are no circumstances in which personal or corporate taxation dealings are made available, say, for the purpose of trade union negotiations or otherwise.
I can assure the Deputy that legislation and administrative practice prevent officers of the Revenue Commissioners from disclosing information of that kind to third parties who are not involved, for whatever purposes. I have confidence that the officers of the Revenue Commissioners carry out their job properly, but if any specific case is reported to me it will be investigated with all diligence.