asked the Minister for Finance the action he proposes to take to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Taxation in its final report to combat the level of tax evasion and to ensure prompt payment of taxes due by all taxpayers on an equitable basis.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Tax Evasion.
36.
The Government have only very recently received the final report of the Commission on Taxation dealing with administration. The recommendations in the report are being examined and, pending the conclusion of that examination, I am not in a position to comment now on individual aspects of this report.
The fact that the Government have not taken any action in respect of the first four reports and are now indicating that they are examining the recommendations is not very reassuring. Will the Minister take note of what the commission said, that the time for analysis has passed, that the time for action has come? Will the Minister indicate to the House the steps, if any, he proposes to take to implement the recommendations in the last report, particularly having regard to the inefficiency which has emerged in regard to the collection system, the lack of checking and counter-checking between VAT, income tax, PRSI and so on and the proposal to introduce a system of assessment? Will the Minister not give us some indication as to his views on the report and the action, if any, he proposes to take on any of the five reports presented to the Government and which are now lying there apparently being further considered?
The Deputy should be aware that he is again factually wrong in suggesting that no action has been taken on any of the matters set out in the first full report of the Commission on Taxation. I would refer him to the Finance Acts of 1983, 1984 and 1985. I can go into these in some detail, if the Deputy wishes. I would just point out that the Deputy has a great penchant for setting up bodies, as indeed he set up the Committee on Taxation, and when he finds himself in Opposition saying on the day on which the report is published, without even having read it with any great care, that it should all be implemented holus-bolus immediately——
I did not say that.
He has a most uncritical approach to these things.
Nor did I say that.
I have failed to find, in any of the comments that the Deputy has ever made about the First Report of the Commission on Taxation, any recognition of the very cogent arguments that have to be taken into account in looking at the effects of the system proposed on taxpayers, particularly those in the lower tax brackets. What is proposed in that report — and I have said this publicly — would amount to nothing short of a crucifixion of those people who are now taxed in the 35 per cent bracket.
Not only is it not the case that we waited for the Fifth Report of the Commission on Taxation to be published but, on 23 October, which was some days before that report was published, the Government announced a series of measures which anticipated some of the proposals made by the commission in their fifth report.
The Minister is wrongly informing the House. I made no statement on the day on which the Commission on Taxation report was published. I made no statement of the kind to which he has referred on any date.
The Deputy has been talking about it for the last three years.
I wish the Minister would not incorrectly inform the House. He should withdraw that. I made no such statement.
The Deputy came in here waving a report in his hand.
A Cheann Comhairle——
No, Deputy, please. Supplementary questions during priority Question Time are strictly confined, in accordance with an order of the House, to the Deputy who put down the question. I regret that I cannot allow the Deputy to ask a question.
PAYE was at £380 million per annum.
I call Question No. 37.
37.
asked the Minister for Finance the revised estimate for the current budget deficit in 1985; and if he will indicate the difference between the revised figure and the original budget estimate in (a) absolute terms and (b) as a percentage of gross national product.
Assuming no unexpected developments over the remainder of the year, the outlook is for a current budget deficit of the order of 0.5 per cent of GNP above the budget estimate. The budget estimate was £1,234 million, estimated to be the equivalent of some 7.9 per cent of GNP. I would prefer not to attempt to project an absolute figure or be more precise on that at this stage. The Deputy will be aware that very significant payments and receipts occur in the final two months of the year and he will appreciate that these cannot be predicted with total precision even at this late stage.
Would the Minister not now acknowledge that even the revised budget target of £1,234 million deficit by the end of the year will now be exceeded by well over £70 million and that we will have a deficit of not less than £1,300 million, which would be over 8 per cent of GNP? In view of that, would he not acknowledge that the stated positions of the Government on the budget deficit in all Government programmes are now well short of being realised and are unsustainable? Also, would he acknowledge that the targets in Building on Reality on which those deficits were also projected cannot be realised? What steps does the Minister propose to take to correct the growing deficit which will now add something in the order of £2 million per year, if we allow this to happen to the national debt?
I would not acknowledge any of the matters which the Deputy has asked me to acknowledge. I would, however, point out that, for example, in 1979 the outturn on the current budget was 81 per cent above the budget target; in 1980 — a year in which he had some part in this himself — the outturn on the current budget deficit exceeded the target by 55 per cent; in 1981 — which was a mixed year — the excess was 55.7 per cent; in 1982 it was 45.5 per cent; in 1983, on the other hand, the outturn was 7.0 per cent above the original target; in 1984 it was 4.6 per cent below the target and in 1985 we will be, as I have said, less than 0.5 per cent of GNP above the outturn. I would conclude from that that over the period during which I have had the honour to hold this office we have restored a degree of predictability to budgeting which has been unknown in the previous experience of the office.
The Minister should tell the Government the essential points.
Question Time is now concluded. The questions put down for oral answer today and not reached will be sent for written answer unless re-balloting is requested before 4 p.m.