Revenue to examine suggestions from politicians

The Revenue Commissioners will examine a number of recommendations made by politicians yesterday, including one that it compensate customers who are out of pocket as a result of mistakes made by the Revenue.

The recommendations are contained in a report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Strategic Management Initiative, which overall is highly complementary of the Revenue. The committee has pointed to the fact that someone who is late in paying their tax can be penalised, but that persons who are the subject of mistakes by the Revenue are not compensated for the temporary loss of use of their money.

"Revenue officials expressed the fear that the introduction of a compensation system could have the unintended side effect of reinforcing, among Revenue staff, the fear of making a mistake," the report stated. "This could foster an attitude of self-protection, which would undo much of the achievement of Revenue in developing a customer-focused, helpful, open culture. However, officials agreed that this is an area which requires further study." Committee chairman Mr Dick Roche TD said that, overall, the Revenue's service had been found to be much improved. Matters which caused concern included the need for a strategy for providing a consistent level of service throughout the Republic, the need for a strategy to deliver a high level of service in Irish and the establishment of action plans to rectify areas of underperformance. There was anecdotal evidence, Mr Roche said, that some seemingly compliant taxpayers had been subjected to repeated audits, and that at times the Revenue's voicemail service might be used "to avoid the public". The committee felt that all compliant taxpayers should be able to get tax compliance certificates. Mr Roche said the Revenue's online service was "very impressive", as was the commitment of the Revenue towards providing a quality service.