A chara, The outcry arising from new evidence on the scale of social, welfare fraud probably says as much about the political agendas of certain elements of the Irish media, and the political, party system, as it does about dishonesty among social welfare, recipients. Every year, the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) points to levels of unpaid tax which are a scale of magnitude greater than, the level of social welfare fraud indicated by the recent CSO survey. While The Irish Times, to its credit, always gives these reports due prominence, the political response is negligible.
The most recent CAG annual report showed that over £2 billions are owed to the State in unpaid taxes, of which only a quarter is ever likely to be recovered. This figure is six or seven times the estimated amount of annual social welfare fraud. Most of it is owed by employers and the self employed in the form of unpaid income tax, PRSI, VAT and corporation tax.
The PAYE sector, of course, has no choice about paying its taxes, and promptly. By contrast, the CAG's report shows that the Revenue Commissioners are very lax in pursuing employers who fail to return their P35 forms by the due date.
These figures refer only to unpaid tax of which the Revenue Commissioners are aware. There is also considerable evidence of large scale tax evasion, as indicated by the much larger than expected yields from the two recent tax amnesties, and information elicited by judicial enquiries. Ten people paid over half a million pounds each under the 1993 tax, amnesty, for example. Yet it is commonly felt that these amnesties revealed only the tip of the tax evasion iceberg.
While social welfare fraud cannot be condoned, it is important to get things in perspective. It appears that there is a strong culture of fiddling the State" abroad in Irish society. The anti social economic individualism promoted by the Progressive Democrats does nothing to counter act this problem. Neither does the very lax approach to pursuing fiddlers, which permeates the State regulatory apparatus.
The State has now been prompted to introduce vigorous new measures to combat social welfare fraud. Can we expect similar measures to combat the much more serious tax fraud? When can we expect to see somebody actually jailed for tax evasion? To my knowledge this has never before happened in the history of the State. Is mise, le meas, Pairc an Raille, Ma Nuad, Co Chill Dara.