I thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise this important matter. I hope that our deliberations here this evening will introduce some reality into this unfortunate event.
The recent decision of the Revenue Commissioners to suspend the postal stamping services for stamp duty and all telephone inquiries concerning individual cases to my mind and in the view of the people most affected, that is the legal profession, is very high handed. There was no consultation whatsoever beforehand. A notice was inserted in the daily newspapers last week to the effect that these services were being withdrawn immediately. This was indeed a high handed decision on the part of the Revenue Commissioners and amounts to discrimination against rural people and solicitors in particular because people living in urban areas tend to avail of the Revenue Commissioners' counter services in this respect.
The postal service for this purpose is a simple operation. It entails the receipt by the Revenue Commissioners of an envelope containing documents, when they compute the stamp duty tax to be applied to the transaction, stamp the documents and return them to the solicitor concerned. If the Revenue Commissioners are not capable of undertaking that task or making alternative arrangements, then those duties should be handed over to the private sector just as was the collection of taxes to a sheriff in the private sector, which had tremendous results. In other words, taxes are now being paid when due. I heard of a case today of an unfortunate builder who had not paid his PAYE and VAT contributions in time and who was visited by the sheriff two weeks after the due date, which is unprecedented. The Revenue Commissioners personnel in the Stamp Duty Office must be living in cloud cuckooland to be so high-handed as to request people to attend personally at their offices and deliver this tax to them. I wonder what would be the reaction were all solicitors to say to the Revenue Commissioners: we are not going to remit our tax by post; you can come to our offices and collect it? One can well imagine that such circumstances would not arise. Yet such would equate to the decision of the Revenue Commissioners to suspend until further notice the postal stamping service and telephone inquiries on the part of the general public with regard to this important matter.
This decision should be viewed very seriously by the Government because it is undermining the confidence of the people in the State's ability to order its affairs. In effect what the Revenue Commissioners are saying is: "we have not the capacity to deal with postal inquiries in respect of an area which brings in a substantial amount of money." Stamp duty rates are very high and the proceeds from stamp duty are very substantial. The Revenue Commissioners should be welcoming the legal profession with open arms and providing every facility possible to get the stamp duty revenue in as quickly as possible.
The lack of a postal service is a source of great hardship for people down the country. When a person buys a house or indeed land or engages in any other such transaction, he has to pay stamp duty. It is necessary to have the legal documents stamped and the transaction finalised quickly so that the mortgage can be made available. Bridging loans are very expensive. I do not think anybody would be happy to be on bridging for a period longer than necessary. The Revenue Commissioners are certainly causing hardship to this sector of the community and they should take very serious note of that hardship.
A few moments ago I received a reply to my query from the Revenue Commissioners, in which they made a few statements. They state that the withdrawal of the postal service will not add an extra cost to the client or to the solicitor. Who is to bear the cost of the solicitor having to get into his car and drive to Dublin in order to attend at the Stamp Duty Office? One solicitor has told me he sends his wife to the Stamp Duty Office once a week, that she takes a taxi and attends there for quite a considerable time, returning home when the business is completed. This is a definite cost and must be paid for. The legal profession are passing this cost on to the client, the ordinary Joe Citizen, whether he is buying a house or land.
The Revenue Commissioners state also that it can be more efficient to attend at their office and that 75 per cent of all applications for stamping are handled through the public offices. That is not factual, in that most country solicitors send their documents by post. If they use a city agent, the agent must hawk quite a considerable number of documents from his office to the Stamp Duty Office, get them stamped and bring them back again. There is a great fear, that documents will be lost as has happened already, because of the large volume concerned. This is very serious. This failure to provide a service should not be foisted on the very hard pressed community and particularly those buying houses.
I would make a very strong case that the Minister should approach the Revenue Commissioners and tell them to act like adults. I do not think that any firm in the private sector would operate in this fashion. Let us remember that Governments should be giving an example to the private sector on how to run their business, however, I am afraid they have a long way to go. I wonder what would happen if I told my customers in the bakery that I was not prepared to take their cheques by post and that they would have to call personally and give me cash over the counter. I can tell you that my overdraft would be very high, people would not accept it and, if I insisted, they would go to other places to do business. The State has a monopoly, but they should act responsibly. Let us remember that the State is the servant of the people and not the master, that it should act as such and provide the service the people are entitled to.
Where people are making large sums available to the Exchequer I cannot understand why they are being turned away. During the tax amnesty the State wrote off large sums of interest payments, and more power to it as this brought in a lot of money and brought people's tax affairs up to date. However, the State had to use a carrot to get the money in whereas in this case people want to pay but the State will not make it possible for them to do so. This is ludicrous and should not be allowed continue beyond this week.
Serving as a member of the Committee of Public Accounts I know of other difficulties in relation to the collection of tax. I am aware, but I hope it is cleared up now, that cheques sent by taxpayers of all descriptions were retained in the Revenue Commissioners' safe for periods up to three months. In fact one of my own cheques was not cashed for two months. That is not how you would operate in an efficient and organised manner and, as I said at the outset, it would certainly undermine my confidence in the State's ability to order its own affairs in a regulated fashion.
I ask the Minister not to let this situation continue beyond this week. The reply I received today from the Revenue Commissioners was like something you would give to an adolescent, you would certainly not give it to a reasonable person in the street, or to a person charged with a very important duty. For God's sake be realistic and treat the people like adults. Let the Minister act responsibly in the very important position he holds and be responsible to the people we represent.
I am very pleased to have the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I hope the Minister will have a positive reply and that I will not hear more drivel of the kind I received in answer to my question today.
