Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration

I am looking to ascertain information into a single matter arising from debates held by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) across the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. The matter relates to tax treatment of the living allowance given to Garda recruits. This matter is mentioned in the PAC debate on 23 November 2017. The record notes that in 2011 ‘Revenue wrote to An Garda Síochána and directed that the practice…be discontinued’. The same report indicates that the Department was seeking legal advice on the issue. Thereafter a Garda Síochána update dated 9 May 2019 and posted on the PAC website indicates that ‘the Garda Síochána believes this advice was shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General’. I am now looking to ascertain: i) up to 31 December 2011 did the Department correspond with Revenue enquiring as to whether there was any tax liability for the Garda Síochána in respect of its payment of the living allowance up to 2011; ii) did the Department correspond with the Attorney General seeking advice on tax treatment of the Garda recruit living allowance after 30 June 2017; iii) did it receive advice on the allowance from the Attorney General; iv) if so, on what date; v) did the Department then share this advice with the Comptroller and Auditor General; vi) if so, on what date; and vii) between 23 November 2017 and 17 October 2019 did the Department correspond with Revenue to determine any liability on the living allowance for Garda recruits, an allowance that continued to be in place between 2011 and May 2017?