Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 April 2014
86. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance if the Revenue Commissioners have outsourced any work regarding the collection of the local property tax and household charge; and if so to what companies; the payment due to them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16012/14]
View answerFor the Deputy's information, I previously outlined in detail the overall cost of the Local Property Tax (LPT) project in Question Number 7 (49077/13) on 20 November 2013.
In regard to the specific Questions asked by the Deputy, I am advised by Revenue that the operational components of the Local Property Tax (LPT)/Household Charge (HHC) project that have been outsourced to external providers are telephone call handling and data capture of paper Returns.
In regard to the call handling operation, following an open competitive tendering process the contract was awarded to Abtran. The company commenced service on 7 March 2013 and has to date handled in excess of 1 million calls.
The Help-Line service, which is provided in both the English and Irish languages, normally operates on a 9am/5pm Monday to Friday cycle, but during peak filing periods is extended to an 8am/8pm cycle and can include Saturday when required.
A key aspect of the service is the Provider's capacity to quickly scale operations up or down in response to call volumes. For example, the number of operators required can vary from 40 up to 275 at peak periods. The advantage of the contract from a cost perspective is that Revenue does not have to pay to keep operators in situ beyond what is needed to handle demand at any particular time and only pays for calls answered. The cost of the service is published on the Revenue website every quarter in accordance with Government policy in respect of all payments exceeding €20,000. Revenue has confirmed to me that a total of €3.583 million was paid for the service delivered during 2013.
I am further advised by Revenue that the data capture element of the LPT project is outsourced under the terms of a separate open competitive tender. The contract is currently held by Billpost who ensures that all paper LPT Returns are data captured within a 2 day turnaround period. The total cost incurred by Revenue to date is €288,075 in respect of 620,000 items data captured.
Finally, Revenue has confirmed to me that the outsourcing of these components of the LPT/HHC operation has played a major role in the overall success of the project, which has so far yielded in excess of €530m to the Exchequer. The use of outsourcing in this manner has also minimised the impact on other core Revenue operations.
