Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 28 Mar 1973

Vol. 265 No. 2

Committee on Finance. - Vote 7: Office of the Revenue Commissioners.

Minister for Finance (Mr. R. Ryan)

I move:

That a supplementary sum not exceeding £340,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1973, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, including certain other services administered by that Office.

This is an additional sum required for the payment of salaries to increased staff in the Offices of the Revenue Commissioners. The increased staff requirements arose as a result of our preparation for entry and accession to the European Economic Community, the introduction of value-added tax, the computerisation of Customs and Excise statistics and the implementation of the Health Contribution Act, 1971.

The additional sums required under subhead B are in respect of the expenses of the Advisory Council on the Transition to Value-Added Tax £21,000, an increased expenditure on advertising in connection with value-added tax and other miscellaneous expenses of £23,000. There is also an additional sum required of £47,000 in relation to machinery and equipment for security, printing and stamping. This item has arisen primarily due to the additional obligations by reason of membership of the European Economic Community and the regulations which arise by virtue of that membership.

An additional sum of £15,000 is required to meet the increased expenditure for law costs against the Department and also the legal enforcement of collection of arrears of tax £4,000 and counsels' fees of £3,000. Under the heading of office machinery and other office supplies subhead, there is a saving, fortunately, of £51,000 but it is rather a temporary one I fear. It is due to unforeseen delays in the installation of a new computer in the office of the Collector General, a saving which occurs under this subhead but is likely to arise at a later date as an additional expense.

Mr. Colley

Since this Supplementary Estimate was incurred and, indeed, prepared in my time as Minister for Finance I will not oppose it. Since this is the first occasion on which I have had an opportunity to do so in this House, I rise merely to wish Deputy Ryan well in his appointment as Minister for Finance in a personal capacity. I do not envy him the task which faces him, which is difficult enough in normal times but which is made twice as difficult by reason of the circumstances in which he finds himself entering into office and the commitments made by himself and his colleagues. We will, of course, be watching with considerable interest to see the manner in which he exercises his ingenuity to overcome these difficulties and we will have something to say about that in the future. For the moment I merely want to wish him well.

Mr. T.J. Fitzpatrick

(Dublin Central): As some of this money arises out of the introduction of value-added tax I want to point out that it was customary, when turnover tax was introduced, to issue ready reckoners to the people responsible for the tax but up to now quite a number of people who are liable for value-added tax have not been issued with those ready reckoners. The Revenue Commissioners should have circulated them long ago.

Mr. R. Ryan

I am grateful to Deputy Fitzpatrick for bringing this matter to my attention. I will inform the people dealing with these matters and I will see if the omission to which he refers can be rectified. I would like also to thank Deputy Colley for his kind remarks. I can well understand his anxiety about the capacity of the Government to fulfil their undertakings having regard to how little he left to enable anybody to fulfil any undertakings. Somebody who is in a better position to adjudicate from the sideline did say to me since the change of Government that both sides were reckless in undertakings which they had given but that the greater blame by far lay on the outgoing Government which knew the financial situation, on the one hand, and yet made promises which would have involved far more expenditure than the reasonable ones which had been made by the incoming Government.

Mr. Colley

I will deal with that on another occasion.

Mr. R. Ryan

All of which is very appropriate to say on a Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, because without the revenue none of the undertakings given would be capable of fulfilment.

Question put and agreed to.