Even tax collectors are prone to sin and get it wrong like the rest of us, according to the latest edition of the official State publication, Iris Oifigiuil.
A Cork-based estate agents and property company has received that rarest of gifts - an unreserved apology from the Revenue Commissioners for getting it wrong.
It is short and light on detail but it is an apology nevertheless.
The Revenue Commissioners incorrectly included the company, City National Properties, in its list of firms which did not lodge their corporation tax returns and on which legal action was being considered.
The calls on the Revenue Commissioners to become tougher against tax fraud may have been the motivation, but on this occasion their enthusiasm has resulted in a blushing mea culpa.
The firm found itself on a list of companies published in Iris Oifigiuil on August 22nd, when reference was made to a £250 fine being imposed by a court for failure to lodge returns. The company was never subject to such a fine.
In an apology in this week's edition of Iris Oifigiuil, the Revenue Commissioners say their information "was wrong and the publication was made in error".
"The Revenue Commissioners fully accept the company was not convicted of, nor was it guilty of the offence referred to and it was not subject to the imposition of the monetary fine," it adds.
A chastened spokeswoman for the Revenue Commissioners refused to comment on the error yesterday and would not explain how the mistake took place.
"We cannot go into the private tax affairs of any company," was her only comment.
A spokesman for City National Properties would not say yesterday whether legal action was pending, but the matter was in the hands of its solicitors, said the spokesman.
"It doesn't make things easy when you have these kind of things happening," he added.
The company buys and sells property all over the Munster region and has been in business for several years.
The publication of the error could leave the Revenue Commissioners open to a claim for defamation, although City National Properties would not say yesterday what kind of legal action it was considering.
The same incorrect statement was published a month before it appeared in Iris Oifigiuil, in the Irish Independent and the Examiner newspapers. Apologies appeared in those publications yesterday.