asked the Minister for Finance the number of farmers to whom payments of resource tax have been remitted under section 17 of the Finance Act, 1982; and the total moneys remitted.

Resource tax has been refunded to a total of 2,204 persons in accordance with the provisions of section 17 of the Finance Act, 1982. The total amount refunded was £855,714.

Is this the total amount which the farmers paid?

That was the total amount refunded to those who had paid the tax under the provisions of the relevant Finance Act.

Is this all the money which the farmers paid to this tax? Have they returned all of the tax at this stage, or is there more to come?

There were amounts which were paid and not refunded owing to a number of provisions under the Act governing the operation of the tax itself. Indeed, included in the amount refunded was a sum of £14,643 in respect of interest which was paid to 134 taxpayers — 134 of those to whom tax refunds were made.

Am I to understand that the State has paid interest to the farmers for the tax paid?

That is correct. Those 134 were cases in which the assessments of resource tax were appealed but in which specified amounts of resource tax had been paid pending determination of the appeal. In those cases the legislation provided for a refund to be made with interest.

The point——

A final supplementary on this question, please, Deputy.

Here is a situation were people are being refunded tax which they were obliged to pay from incomes. Yet there is no provision for workers to claim back tax which they are paying and which they were legally obliged to pay. Could the Minister give any justification for the refund of tax in this case?

Yes. A decision was made to refund amounts of resource tax on foot of a Government decision based on the conviction that the tax in itself had been an unfair one to apply in the first place. This was subsequently borne out by events. Once that decision had been made, the Government moved on to a decision to refund the amounts which had been paid.

Question No. 2. We must pass on to the next question.

I want to know——

I have been generous with the Deputy in allowing supplementaries on this question.

I want to find out how much it cost to collect the tax and repay it.

That would appear to be a separate question.