Removal of bean a ti tax break is criticised

A decision by the Revenue to remove a tax exemption for the bean a tí, the traditional summer host of schoolchildren in Gaeltacht areas, has been blamed for undermining the future viability of Irish-language schools.

Mr Gearóid Ó Brosnacháin, chairman of Comhchoiste na gColáistí Samhraidh (CONCOS), an umbrella group of summer colleges, said the decision to revoke a 15-year taxation agreement, whereby every bean a tí paid just 10 per cent of total income to the Revenue, would discourage people from taking the job.

"Irish colleges are already under pressure to find enough bean a tí to cover summer courses. If they have to keep accounts, as they're being asked to now, they won't bother keeping students anymore, and that would be to the detriment of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht areas," he said.

Under the new arrangements, introduced for this tax year, mná na títhe will be taxed in the same way as other self-employed people. A Revenue spokesman said: "There is no suggestion of massive evasion in the area. This is just to bring people into the same regime as everyone else."

There were a total of 675 registered mná na títhe last year. They received almost €3.5 million from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, which pays each an allowance of €7 per student per day. Most colleges pay a similar figure to the bean a tí, producing an average payment about €14 to 18 per student per day.

Mr Seán Ó Flaithearta, director of Coláiste Ó Direáin, Inis Mór Árainn, said most mná na títhe regarded it as "something of a vocation. There is no big money there. People are not queuing up to do the job." Echoing this view, Ms Mairead Gallagher, a bean a tí from Gweedore, Co Donegal, told RTÉ's News at One that people who did the job "don't look at it as a business". They worked "practically 24 hours of the day" and as a result did not have time to keep accounts, she said. But the Revenue spokesman replied: "We are not asking people to keep elaborate audited accounts, just a note of what goes in and what goes out."