Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 20 May 2003

Vol. 567 No. 1

Written Answers. - Tax Reliefs.

Gay Mitchell

Ceist:

189 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Finance if he will make a statement on the concerns of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 8; and if he will consider introducing a DIRT type automatic deduction for persons who pay tax to eliminate the need for such paperwork. [13769/03]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy)

The current tax relief for waste service charges is provided by granting a relief to taxpayers based on the charges they have paid to local authorities and private operators in the previous year, provided of course they have actually paid the relevant amount and on time.

I can appreciate the thrust of the various points raised by the Deputy. There are, however, a number of factors which mitigate against a system of tax relief at source for waste service charges, in particular the different ways that service charges operate in local authorities; the prevalence of the tag system per bag collected; and the number of private operators involved.

In general, a tax relief at source operates more easily where there are a limited number of providers of the service for the tax system to deal with. I will, however, bear in mind what the Deputy has said when I next review the application of the system.