Vol. 416 No. 2
77 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance if he will outline the arrangements which are made within sections in the offices of the Revenue Commissioners to cover the work of staff members who are on maternity or other leave; and if his attention has been drawn to situations where files are left unattended for the full duration of such leave due to inadequate arrangements in this regard.
Generally within the Office of the Revenue Commissioners the work of staff members who are on maternity leave or other leave is dealt with by a redistribution of the work or a reassignment of staff within the area in question.
However, in the Office of the Chief Inspector of Taxes, where staff members have individual allocations of cases some unions have operated a course of action, the effect of which is as follows. When a staff member leaves an area for any reason and is not replaced the remaining staff will not cover for or accept a reallocation of the work of that officer except when they have no personal arrears of post or if overtime is sanctioned to carry out that work.
The effect of this varies for area to area and from time to time — at present there are not material arrears arising from this action. When this action is ongoing the inspector prioritises the unhandled items to alleviate hardship. Overall the effect of this action is not widespread because it is not rigidly enforced by the unions in all areas.
The Commissioners are currently engaged in intensive negotiations with the unions concerned to introduce a major restructuring in the Office of the Chief Inspector of Taxes which, inter alia, will resolve this issue.
