asked the Minister for Finance the action he proposes to take to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Taxation in its final report to combat the level of tax evasion and to ensure prompt payment of taxes due by all taxpayers on an equitable basis.

The Government have only very recently received the final report of the Commission on Taxation dealing with administration. The recommendations in the report are being examined and, pending the conclusion of that examination, I am not in a position to comment now on individual aspects of this report.

The fact that the Government have not taken any action in respect of the first four reports and are now indicating that they are examining the recommendations is not very reassuring. Will the Minister take note of what the commission said, that the time for analysis has passed, that the time for action has come? Will the Minister indicate to the House the steps, if any, he proposes to take to implement the recommendations in the last report, particularly having regard to the inefficiency which has emerged in regard to the collection system, the lack of checking and counter-checking between VAT, income tax, PRSI and so on and the proposal to introduce a system of assessment? Will the Minister not give us some indication as to his views on the report and the action, if any, he proposes to take on any of the five reports presented to the Government and which are now lying there apparently being further considered?

The Deputy should be aware that he is again factually wrong in suggesting that no action has been taken on any of the matters set out in the first full report of the Commission on Taxation. I would refer him to the Finance Acts of 1983, 1984 and 1985. I can go into these in some detail, if the Deputy wishes. I would just point out that the Deputy has a great penchant for setting up bodies, as indeed he set up the Committee on Taxation, and when he finds himself in Opposition saying on the day on which the report is published, without even having read it with any great care, that it should all be implemented holus-bolus immediately——

I did not say that.

He has a most uncritical approach to these things.

Nor did I say that.

I have failed to find, in any of the comments that the Deputy has ever made about the First Report of the Commission on Taxation, any recognition of the very cogent arguments that have to be taken into account in looking at the effects of the system proposed on taxpayers, particularly those in the lower tax brackets. What is proposed in that report — and I have said this publicly — would amount to nothing short of a crucifixion of those people who are now taxed in the 35 per cent bracket.

Not only is it not the case that we waited for the Fifth Report of the Commission on Taxation to be published but, on 23 October, which was some days before that report was published, the Government announced a series of measures which anticipated some of the proposals made by the commission in their fifth report.

The Minister is wrongly informing the House. I made no statement on the day on which the Commission on Taxation report was published. I made no statement of the kind to which he has referred on any date.

The Deputy has been talking about it for the last three years.

I wish the Minister would not incorrectly inform the House. He should withdraw that. I made no such statement.

The Deputy came in here waving a report in his hand.

A Cheann Comhairle——

No, Deputy, please. Supplementary questions during priority Question Time are strictly confined, in accordance with an order of the House, to the Deputy who put down the question. I regret that I cannot allow the Deputy to ask a question.

PAYE was at £380 million per annum.

I call Question No. 37.

37.