Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 July 2013
884. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide, in tabular form, a list of all professional fees, including but not limited to legal, consultancy, IT related, advisory, advertising and accountancy; the company name and the amount invoiced between 1 June 2012 and 31 May 2013. [34549/13]
View answerI wish to refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 610 of 19 July 2012, which covered the period to the end of June 2012, wherein I advised that the only manner in which my Department can identify professional services is by reference to the automatic deduction of Professional Withholding Tax. This tax covers a range of professional activities not limited to the examples supplied by the Deputy. The listing sought by the Deputy amounts to over 520,000 individual transactions over the 12 month period to the end of May 2013. As previously advised, the sheer volume and scale of information sought would make the provision of a full listing unsuitable for transmission via the PQ System.
In the period from the 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013 a total of 2,530 individual suppliers submitted invoices totalling circa €61.3 million, from which Withholding Tax was deducted. Of this total over 92% is accounted for by payments to legal professionals under the system of Criminal Legal Aid.
