There had been a 40 per cent increase in economic activity in the past five years, but a 20 per cent reduction in taxation staff in the past 10 years, the IMPACT conference has been told.
Ms Mary Farrell, of the Association of Inspectors of Taxes, said that there had been a fall of £3 million in the tax yield from evaders last year because resources were being diverted elsewhere.
"The present resources assigned to combating long-term tax evasion nationally is six inspectors of taxes. The number of inspectors assigned to revenue audit has also fallen over the past 12 months, as the demands of an expanding economy have forced them to move into the services provision area."
So-called draconian legislation had been introduced without corresponding resources to implement it. She said any new national agreement must include provision for adequately resourcing the revenue services.
The IMPACT national secretary, Mr Paddy Keating, said a lot of the tax reforms achieved under Partnership 2000, such as a switch to tax credits and larger personal allowances, had been due to the union's campaigns for tax reform.
Scope for further cuts would depend partly on ensuring that high-income groups and business paid their fair share. Otherwise, when economic growth slowed down, capacity to reduce taxes or maintain public services would be undermined.
TELECOM: The decision by the Government to remove worker-directors from the Telecom Eireann board as part of the process of privatising the company was condemned by the conference. A worker-director, Mr Stephen Lyons, said the action "flew in the face of the Government's call for workplace partnership".
He said there was no reason worker participation should not be institutionalised across the public service, the commercial semi-state companies and the private sector.
SAFETY: The "explosion" in employment is not being matched by adequate monitoring of workplace safety, the assistant general secretary, Mr Matt Staunton, said yesterday. He said there had been a 50 per cent increase in prosecutions by the Health and Safety Authority last year, but this still came to only 50 cases.
Inspectors with the HSA were considering industrial action to draw public attention to the lack of adequate enforcement. He said a number of reports by the insurance industry had called for HSA staff to be "at least doubled".
The conference was told that 10 years after the passing of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, some employers had yet to produce safety statements.
FIREFIGHTERS: An emergency motion was passed at the conference yesterday supporting the decision of members in Dublin Fire Brigade to ballot for strike action. SIPTU, which represents a majority of firefighters in Dublin, has already served strike notice for June 3rd.
The dispute is over productivity measures to be agreed in return for maintaining the parity of firefighters with the Garda. Dublin Corporation is looking for additional changes, while the firefighters argue that they have already given significantly more in changed work practices than the Garda.
A delegate, Mr Michael Duffy, said firefighters frequently risked their lives for the public. "All we want is a fair reward for the many flexibility and productivity measures we have delivered to maintain the modern, efficient service that Dubliners deserve."