The House will now hear two minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and to the Minister for Finance. I propose to call Deputies I have selected in the following order: Deputy Gerry Reynolds and Deputy Michael Finucane. Each Deputy is entitled to two minutes in respect of each matter and each Deputy will be followed immediately by a two minute reply from the appropriate Minister.
Foreign Affairs and Finance Matters.
Leitrim is the only Border county without any direct access into Northern Ireland. This has obtained for the last 18 years when the British Army blew up the roads and barricaded the roads which give direct access from County Leitrim to County Fermanagh. There are 12 crossings from Leitrim to Fermanagh and not one is open. As the Minister is aware the village of Kiltyclogher and its hinterland has suffered a slow and painful economic death over the past 18 years because direct access to Northern Ireland was extremely important for the economic benefit of the area. I raised this in the Dáil on another occasion. It is important to have at least one Border crossing open between Leitrim and Fermanagh. Yesterday, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs visited the area and saw the destruction of the economy there and came to realise the number of locals who wish the crossing to be re-opened. The Minister of State saw for himself one of the last signs of partition in Europe. There is a wall across the canal and the river which borders the two counties. It is Leitrim's Berlin Wall and it is something that will have to be taken down. I would ask the Minister and the Government to be very aggressive in requesting the British to at least re-open one Border crossing between both counties.
I appreciate the comments of Deputy Reynolds.
The points made by the Deputy echo those which were made to the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Seán Calleary, who visited Kiltyclogher and the surrounding area on Monday 13 May at the request of Leitrim County Council. The Minister of State had discussions with a wide range of local people including Deputies Ellis and Reynolds and members of the county council. He visited a number of the closed border crossings to see at first hand the practical problems faced by local communities as a result of closed border roads, and will be making a report to the Minister when he returns from Brussels.
The Deputy has argued that the reopening of even one or two of the six closed crossings in the county would be a very welcome development. He drew particular attention to the situation in the village of Kiltyclogher, which has declined greatly since the local roads into County Fermanagh were closed in the 1970s, and the way in which the closure of the Rossinver-Garrison road is impeding the development of the tourism potential of Lough Melvin and its hinterland. I have to say that the case for reopening at least one of these roads was well developed by the Deputy and is similar to that made by Leitrim County Council and the various deputations met by the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, yesterday and also on previous occasions.
The Government are, of course, fully aware of the economic and social disruption caused to the people of Counties Leitrim and Fermanagh by the closure of cross-Border roads, and there is every sympathy for people whose lives have been disrupted by these measures. The questions of road closures and the particular difficulties they create for people in areas such as Leitrim and Fermanagh have been repeatedly raised with the British authorities through the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in Belfast. The issue has also be discussed at meetings of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, including the most recent Conference meeting, which was held in London on 26 April last.
I assure the House that the Government will continue to press the issue vigorously with the British authorities and to urge, as we have done in the past, that all road closures should be kept under regular and careful review and that they should be maintained only where the most persuasive security considerations exist.
At present old age pensioners with savings in banks, building societies and post offices have to pay the DIRT tax on the interest on their savings and then, dependent on their exemption from tax, that is refunded at a later date on completion of the appropriate paperwork.
At present more than 20,000 claim that refund, the majority of whom are old age pensioners. In 1990 about £15.3 million was refunded. It is estimated that thousands of people do not bother to claim the refund because of the bureaucracy involved and also because of their own fears and concerns.
In the United Kingdom, where a similar situation prevails, deposit interest retention tax is not automatically withheld from the accounts of senior citizens or people on such low incomes that they pay no income tax. Here both groups are treated in the same way as any other earning income depositor. Many old age pensioners are often afraid to invest even a small amount of money in any savings institutions. Many of them would prefer to keep their money in a biscuit tin or under the mattress, with the attendant risk of burglary.
I now call on the Minister to redress the unfair situation that obtains for old age pensioners.
Deposit interest retention tax was introduced in 1986. It operates as a deduction at source, at the standard rate of income tax, from deposit interest paid by banks, building societies, etc. The standard rate of income tax was 35 per cent when the tax was introduced. It has since, of course, been reduced to 29 per cent. The Finance Act, 1986, provides that retention tax may be repaid to persons aged 65 years or over to the extent that they would not otherwise be liable to tax on the relevant deposit interest.
The Revenue Commissioners have introduced a series of measures to ensure that refunds of retention tax are made to the elderly as quickly as possible. First, a special simplified system was introduced in respect of such refunds in 1986. Secondly, the Revenue Commissioners conducted an advertising campaign in the press and on radio in April 1990 in order to draw attention to the circumstances in which an individual is entitled to a refund. The campaign was successful and resulted in an appreciable increase in the number of claims received. Thirdly, since 1990 the Revenue Commissioners have been maintaining a computerised record of all taxpayers who qualify for a refund of DIRT, so that those taxpayers will be issued automatically with a claim form in order to facilitate the following year's claim.
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the procedures for refunds to the elderly are working satisfactorily and that there is no undue delay in processing claims for refunds. There are no plans to introduce a system of payment of interest gross, as suggested. I also point out that there are a number of saving options to which retention tax does not apply. These include interest from credit unions and interest and bonus from the three small-savers' schemes operated by An Post, savings bonds, savings certificates and national instalment savings. By switching to one or a combination of these, it is possible to minimise the impact of retention tax on interest income.
The Dáil adjourned at 11.5 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 May 1991.