Housing delivery, the plastic bag tax, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, and policing concerts and race meetings are among the topics reviewed in the latest report from the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG).
Pandemic Unemployment Payment
The Department of Social Welfare has identified 50,000-60,000 cases where it seems people who claimed the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) – designed to support people out of work because of the pandemic – were also paying employment taxes, according to the C&AG report.
An ongoing comparison of Revenue and PUP records has to date involved 30 million PUP payments being cross-checked week by week against Revenue records. As of June 2024, almost 6,600 claimants have been contacted to initiate the recovery of money paid out, according to the report.
Total PUP payments between 2020 and 2022 were about €9.2 billion. Overpayments as of the end of last year are estimated at €55.5 million, or 0.6 per cent of the total paid out, of which €13 million has been recovered, according to the report.
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Concerts
The cost of policing for-profit events such as major concerts is not fully recouped from the event organisers, according to the report.
Policing the Harry Styles concert at Slane Castle last year cost nearly €67,000 more than the €207,180 charged by An Garda Síochána to the promoter.
The difference between the cost of policing the Galway Races and the charge to the organisers was €23,000 while the equivalent for the Punchestown Racing Festival in Kildare was €36,000.
An Garda Síochána is responsible for maintaining public order and safety in its day-today policing duties. There may be occasions where normal Garda public duty overlaps with policing of non-police duties, the report said.
Dunnes Stores
A plastic bag tax assessment for €36.6 million, issued to Dunne Stores by Revenue in 2009, was settled with a payment of €5 million earlier this year, following a lengthy court process and an appeal to the Tax Appeals Commission.
The CA&G report, which does not identify the retailer, says that when the Supreme Court ruled against Dunne Stores in 2019, in a case taken by the retailer in 2010 contesting the law underpinning the tax, Revenue reviewed the assessment it had raised in 2009, and concluded it had been overstated by more than three-quarters.
By this stage Revenue had the benefit of Dunnes Stores’ analysis of the assessment, the report says. For various reasons, including that the assessment had included tax on bags that Dunnes had already paid, the amount sought from the retailer was reduced to €8.5 million.
Dunnes said it would appeal the new, lower assessment to the High Court while making an offer to settle for €5 million. Revenue, after being advised to settle given the risks involved in going to court, accepted the amount offered.
Housing
A measure introduced eight years ago to remove barriers to housing development in areas with high potential “does not appear” to have achieved the expected acceleration in delivery, according to the report.
The Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) was designed to support housing supply by relieving critical infrastructure blockages.
Introduced in 2016, it was envisaged 30 infrastructure projects with LIHAF support would be completed by 2021 and assist the delivery of almost 20,000 housing units. However, at the end of last year, just 6,418 units had been completed.
The Department of Housing remains confident that the original LIHAF housing delivery commitments would eventually be delivered, the report said.
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