Tax Appeals Commission
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

Obviously, making sure Ireland remains a competitive location for foreign direct investment, FDI, is an important consideration. I will reflect further on that on foot of the Deputy raising it. In looking at what other parts of the world do, we see that Canada, England and Australia operate in a similar environment to what the current legislation, as currently drafted, proposes for our tax appeals system. New Zealand is an exception where tax appeals are not open to the public. Across the EU, there is a significant variety across tax appeals bodies but it is certainly not uncommon to have a system where appeals are public in the first instance and then held in private at the discretion of an appellant for a stated reason.
In 2025, 1,192 new appeals were received and 1,286 cases were closed. A total of 237 appeals were scheduled for hearing in 2025, of which 93 subsequently proceeded.
It is very common for appeals to be settled, withdrawn or consolidated with other appeals, or indeed, dismissed in advance of any hearing taking place. We will give this further consideration. We will take the recommendations seriously from pre-legislative scrutiny. However, the question is how we can be compliant with the Supreme Court ruling and how we get that balance right.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21