A group set up by the minister for finance to find a way of taxing people for using employer-provided car parking spaces in Dublin is to meet again this week, more than a year after the minister announced the initiative.
Observers have not been surprised to learn the group is not making speedy progress. Among those represented on it are the Revenue Commissioners - one of the biggest beneficiaries of State-provided parking in the capital.
The Revenue, according to official figures released by the Office of Public Works, has 782 parking spaces in the city, more than twice that of other key State departments. One in three Revenue staff working in Dublin gets a free space at sites owned or leased for staff by the Revenue Commissioners.
The group also includes officials from the Department of Finance, which chairs it. Their Department and other State Departments have 2,594 parking spaces for staff in the city, bringing free car parking for State Departments in the capital to 3,376.
With public parking in the city costing up to £18.20 for an eight-hour day, these civil servants are enjoying a privilege which must be the envy of the typical commuter.
Mr McCreevy expressed surprise on his most recent Budget day that the group he had asked to come up with a fair and workable system to impose a benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax had been unsuccessful in finding a way to do it.
Last week a Department of Finance spokesman said it was quite wrong to suggest that any delay might result from the officials' considering the fate of their own free parking spaces.
The Department spokesman pointed out that the minister did not want to see the initiative lost and had called on the working group to renew its efforts.
The Department of Finance confirmed that the group met the Department of the Environment, the OPW, the Dublin Transportation Office and the Green Taxes Group a number of times before the December Budget. It has also met several times since, a spokesman said.
The difficulties they have found in coming up with a workable formula are outlined in documentation prepared before the Budget.
Officials have encountered what were described as "major difficulties" in quantifying the value to individuals of parking spaces.
"Particular difficulties arise in cases where an employee is not given exclusive use of the car-parking space. For example, some employees may have parking rights on a first come, first served basis; others may have parking rights for only part of the year or share the space with other employees," one paper considered by the group said.
It also warned of possible industrial relations implications if a tax - proposed for Dublin only to relieve traffic congestion rather than to raise revenue - was imposed.
It suggested this could arise, for example, as a result of staff within a single company paying different amounts of tax depending on their office location and associated car parking. "There may also be industrial relations issues to be considered in relation to public service staff and possible claims for re-coupment of any BIK charge in travel and subsistence claims," the paper said.
The group discussed alternative methods which might be used for valuing the benefit. These included the cost to the employer of providing the space, the value to the employee of the space, the market value of the space or putting a standard value on the space. It found that in practice there would be difficulties with each method.
The secretary of the Irish Parking Association, Mr Liam Keilthy, said public transport in the capital must be improved before BIK is introduced.
"If Dublin wants to remain a vibrant commercial city it has no choice but to continue to cater for the car. There are people who require their cars for their job and they have to be catered for.
"There are also people who do not require cars for their work and provided they have an alternative public transport option that is sensible and viable, there is an argument to try and reduce congestion on the roads by encouraging them to use public transport by making it a disincentive to bring a car into town," he said.