Revenue gives helpline firm €8.2m in property tax fees

IT is not often that Revenue makes mistakes. The tax authority is regarded as one of the most efficient public sector bodies in the State.

Gordon Deegan

February 11 2015 04:54 PM

outsourcing firm Abtran, which operates the helpline for the Revenue's local property tax (LPT) got fees of €4.65m for providing the service last year.

That is according to new figures from Revenue which show that the Cork-based firm has received fees from Revenue totalling €8.23m since March 2013. Abtran started with just six people in 1997. It now employs 1,100.

The figures for the last quarter of 2014 show that Abtran received €1.265m during that period. However, the general secretary of the Civil & Public Services Union (CPSU), Eoin Ronayne, has described the payout by Revenue as "dead money" and called on Revenue to appoint full-time staff to do the work in-house after the current contract with Abtran concludes.

The CPSU represents 2,400 Revenue employees and Mr Ronayne claimed that the €4.65m last year would be sufficient to employ 150 full-time staff to carry out the work.

"Revenue has told us the reason it put the work out to tender was that there was a recruitment embargo in place," Mr Ronayne said.

"Now that the embargo has been removed, we believe that there is no longer an excuse not to have the work done in-house.

"The money being paid by Revenue is wasteful and should be used to fund the employment of full-time staff to carry out the work."