Comptroller denied access to Revenue appeal files

The official watchdog on State expenditure, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has not been allowed full access to the files of the Revenue appeal commissioners in a dispute over confidentiality, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.

The Attorney General has been asked to provide legal advice on the issue and his report is expected early in the new year.

Appeal commissioner John O'Callaghan told the Public Accounts Committee yesterday that he had taken an oath of confidentiality in relation to cases and that he could not support giving the comptroller full access to the files without advice.

He said that the appeal commissioners dealt with between 200 and 300 cases each year and that he was not aware of lengthy waiting times for hearings.

Green Party TD Dan Boyle said that the office had surrendered over one-third of its budget back to the exchequer for the last three years.

Mr O'Callaghan said that the money had been allotted for the provision of additional staff but recruitment had been held up as a result of difficulties dealing with red tape. This had caused problems in relation to the reporting of cases and the compilation of annual reports.

The committee heard that between 2000 and 2004 there had been 24 appeals brought to the High Court arising from cases before the appeal commissioners.

However, Mr O'Callaghan said that the High Court never informed the office of its decisions in relation to appeals brought on a point of law.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Frank Daly, told the committee that he "would not be surprised" if there were more unannounced visits by customs officials to private airfields in the future.

Labour Party TD Joan Burton said that her constituency in west Dublin was awash with drugs at a level not seen in 20 years.

There was a strong belief that this was linked to the lack of presence by customs officials at private airfields. She maintained that customs officers had made only 12 announced and six unannounced visits to Weston airfield in west Dublin in recent months.

Mr Daly said that the presence of customs officials at airfields was based on information available and on risk profiles.

He said that the country was much more compliant in tax matters than it was five years or certainly 10 years ago.