Vol. 420 No. 4
10 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Finance if he will outline, in respect of the registers of landlords of residential property maintained by the Revenue Commissioners, the information which is contained in the register; whether it is open to public inspection; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The register of landlords to which the Deputy is referring is a listing of the details of known landlords as well as let properties. This database of information is maintained for internal purposes by the special enquiry branch of the Revenue Commissioners and is used primarily as an information cross-check as part of the Revenue programme to tackle tax evasion in the private rented sector. The register is continually updated as further information is received.
The Revenue Commissioners are precluded from allowing the public to inspect this register because of their obligations to observe confidentiality in relation to individual taxpayers affairs.
Would the Minister not agree that there is a marvellous opportunity available to the Revenue Commissioners, who have not shown a degree of shyness in the past in these matters, to engage the support of many private rented tenants throughout the cities who are being badly exploited by landlords who are charging exhorbitant rents? Would the Minister not agree that to make that register open to the public would be a useful and cost-effective way of updating and improving the accuracy of the information the Revenue Commissioners have?
The Revenue Commissioners hold this for internal use. I was rather surprised to see that it is not computerised. Following a question put down some months ago I asked about that aspect and requested that it start. I do not want to go into details about how the register is kept. When this is computerised there will be an index of known landlords, containing names and addresses of landlords, as well as the address of the let property and an index of let properties containing the addresses of properties and the number of units. The public send a lot of this data to the Revenue Commissioners as do owners of property in their tax returns. Section 227 of the Finance Bill makes it compulsory for letting agents and managers of premises to return details of all premises managed by them to the Revenue Commissioners. Until now that did not happen. We can try to extend the base. In the matter of making it public, the Revenue Commissioners are precluded from doing that because of their obligation to observe confidentiality.
I am delighted to hear of the sensitivity of the Revenue Commissioners in this respect. It does not match with their sensitivities proclaimed in other aspects of their demand for powers. If this Government are committed to open Government, tenants have a right to see what their landlords are recording as the rent which they purport they are getting from the tenants. Can the Minister not simply make it clear to the Revenue Commissioners that it is in the public interest that tenants in private rented sector accommodation have the right to be able to see in Dublin Castle, in the Revenue Commissioners offices, what rent they are reputed to be paying to their landlord on foot of the landlord's information to the Revenue Commissioners and to adjust it accordingly, if that is necessary?
I have asked that this be computerised. At the moment it is not in a form which could be made available for public inspection. A great amount of the data used here comes directly from the returns of individuals and the Revenue Commissioners are precluded from making public data which is obtained through tax returns. If there is a way around that I will explore it, because I have no difficulty in seeing data on premises published. That is why last week, and the week before, I was arguing for some powers in this area. The data must be in a form which will not break confidentiality.
Would it not be possible to have a register of the rent and the landlord's name.
Deputy Quinn. We must proceed to other questions quite shortly.
I understand the constraints of time. I invite the Minister, since he clearly accepts the force of my argument, to put a section into the second Finance Bill, 1992, to legislate for what I have just suggested and to bring the format of the register up to a level which will enable it to be inspected, and end the nonsense.
I have commenced work on computerising it and on putting it into an acceptable form.
Let us now come to deal with other questions.
