Pension tax details not 'buried', Kenny says

THE TAOISEACH has rejected Fianna Fáil claims that the Government buried information about the pensioners’ tax liability letters controversy in a “rainforest” of documentation to avoid “political accountability”.

During heated exchanges in the Dáil yesterday, Enda Kenny acknowledged that the “handling of the communications” surrounding issuing letters to 115,000 pensioners could have been better.

He was not aware “of the extent of letters” being sent by the Revenue Commissioners to pensioners who had either under-declared or not reported pension payments.

However, when Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin described as “absolutely pathetic” the Government’s attempt to “hide” the measure “in the depths of the rainforest of supporting budgetary documentation”, Mr Kenny insisted it “was not buried away in the forest”.

He said the information was included formally and publicly in the supporting documentation the Minister for Finance gave on budget day, which, he told Mr Martin, “you should have read”.

During Leaders’ Questions, Mr Martin said the budget speech was the “ideal opportunity to be upfront with people”.

“You should have overseen a major communications programme on this, knowing as you knew and the Minister for Finance knew that this was going to happen”.

He claimed a “very cynical exercise” was undertaken which caused “anger, confusion and great distress to thousands of pensioners”. “When you discussed that €45 million and its collection you must have discussed its underpinnings” and how it would be raised, he told the Taoiseach.

The Government “does not discuss whether or not pensioners in the category where a 20 cent liability might be involved should be written to by the Revenue Commissioners or not”, Mr Kenny said.

Mr Martin said there was a conscious concerted effort to collect money “without any political accountability by the Government”, by the Minister for Social Protection or the Minister for Finance.

The Taoiseach, however, was unaware of the extent of the letters sent to pensioners but told Mr Martin that if a different system was in place, “you would have 500,000 persons concerned or anxious about what is involved”.

Mr Martin said pensioners “deserve a bit better than that”. If anything came out of the controversy it should be “a bit better degree of political accountability, honesty and transparency”.

Mr Kenny said the Revenue Commissioners were “completely independent of Government and to attempt to either direct them or give them a diktat would be unwarranted interference”.

The Revenue Commissioners notified the Department of Finance of its capacity to collect €45 million on the basis of the assessment of the 500,000-plus files received from the Department of Social Protection. The power to transfer such information “has been available since 2005”, he stressed.

Earlier Fianna Fáil social protection spokesman Barry Cowen said Fine Gael and Labour sought to “hide behind the Revenue Commissioners” and allowed the Revenue “to scare the living daylights out of thousands of pensioners around the country”.

The Government had factored this revenue into the budget from a planned tax initiative but “failed to inform the pensioners of what was in the pipeline in the hope that their party political interests would be protected”.

Minister of State Shane McEntee said: “Everyone regrets that 115,000 letters were issued without warning, but that’s the way it is.” Responding for Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, Mr McEntee said taxation was primarily a matter for Revenue. For social welfare payments subject to tax, however, the department “notifies its customers that their payments are taxable and that they should contact their local tax office in this regard.”