Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2019
144. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Finance if the attention of the Revenue Commissioners has been drawn to the delays experienced by persons using a telephone number (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2911/19]
View answerI am advised by Revenue that the telephone number quoted by the Deputy is the National PAYE Customer Helpline, which deals with a range of queries from PAYE employees such as tax credit entitlements, credit allocations across employments and tax overpayment or underpayment situations.
The demand for this service is traditionally highest in the early months of each year when PAYE customers review their tax paid for the previous year or query any tax related changes to their take home pay. The service has experienced particularly heavy demand in recent weeks and is currently dealing with approximately 4,500 telephone calls per day in addition to almost 2,000 visits per day to local offices and approximately 5,000 items of on-line and paper correspondence per day. A significant portion of the additional demand has arisen from employers updating their employee records in late 2018 in advance of the move to real-time reporting on 1 January 2019 under PAYE Modernisation.
Revenue is fully aware of the recent difficulties being experienced by some PAYE customers in accessing the service and has redeployed significant resources to meet the demand. The additional resources bring the number of telephone operatives on the Helpline to over 200, which will reduce waiting times and the delays to which the Deputy is referring. Revenue has also confirmed that it will continue to monitor the demand levels each day and will further increase resources should it be necessary to do so.
