Vol. 483 No. 1
62 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Finance the new office machinery and other office supplies which the Revenue Commissioners are acquiring with the extra £11,088,000 which he has allocated to them in the Estimates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19709/97]
The 1998 Estimates for Public Services (Abridged Version) provides under Subhead A5 (Office Machinery and Other Office Supplies) for a sum of £18,733,000 for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners.
Expenditure under this subhead relates to purchases and maintenance of computers and office equipment and stationery costs. The actual increase which has been provided for the Revenue Commissioners, over and above the 1997 forecasted outturn of £13,139,000 is £5,594,000 and not £11,088,000 as referred to by the Deputy. The difference is due to an error which resulted in the forecasted 1997 outturn, as published, being understated (by £5,494,000). The error will be corrected in the Revised Estimates.
The additional £5,594,000 was provided to fund/part fund a number of new developments as well as to cover the increased day to day running costs associated with maintaining the Revenue Commissioners' extensive and sophisticated computer systems. It is estimated that the latter dayto-day running costs will increase by some £1,000,000 in 1998. In addition, extra funding has been provided for major developments in a number of areas, such as the Euro, Year 2000 and Freedom of Information. Funding has also been provided to replace the present largely manual stamp duty system relating to land and property transactions with an integrated computerised system. Finally, extra funding has been made available for integrated tax processing which, when completed, will enable a consolidated view of a taxpayer's affairs across all taxheads to be taken as opposed to the present single taxhead approach.
I am satisfied that the additional investment in Revenue's IT infrastructure is essential to under-pin tax collection levels and to continue providing a quality service to the growing numbers of customers dealt with by Revenue.
