Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have a different view from that of Deputy Pearse Doherty on this matter. We held hearings during the pre-legislative scrutiny phase when different views were expressed by members of the committee, practitioners and other stakeholders. From my point of view, it is a fundamental right of taxpayers to have their cases heard in private, if they so wish. The offices of the appeal commissioners are not a court of law.

I accept that justice proceedings before the courts have to be generally dealt with in public. The reality is that if it was at the discretion of the appeals commissioners, as provided for in subsection (2), and there was no subsection (3), the taxpayer would be taking the risk that the appeals commissioners would decide that the case should be heard in public. In practice, that would be a deterrent to people. Information that I might regard as sensitive might not be regarded as sensitive information by the appeals commissioners. I firmly believe that taxpayers have the right to have their cases heard in private before the appeals commissioners. On Second Stage, I welcomed the change to the Bill that we had examined during the pre-legislative stage.