Minister Cowen's reply to Dail Question on Tax Advocate
“... other avenues are also open for taxpayers to make their complaints and to seek satisfaction for perceived unfair treatment. They can lodge a customer service complaint about the standard of service received in their personal contact with the Revenue Commissioners by telephone, correspondence, fax, e-mail or in person to a Revenue public office. They can request a review by Revenue of any aspect of the way in which their tax affairs have been handled. Such reviews are undertaken by a senior Revenue official who was not involved in the original decision or, at the taxpayer's request, jointly by an external reviewer and a senior official. Taxpayers who are dissatisfied with specific treatments by Revenue can also make an appeal under statutory provisions which grant access to the appeal commissioners. The appeal commissioners are completely independent of the Revenue Commissioners.”
Though views will differ as to how satisfactory such avenues of approach might be, they apparently permit the Minister to conclude that “it is not obvious to me that there is a case for putting in place the additional layer of a tax advocate's office.”