Michael Mulcahy (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill in general and the stewardship of the national finances by the Minister for Finance. I also welcome the important provision relating to the Private Residential Tenancies Board, as referred to by my colleague, Deputy Fleming. I agree with him that it should be extended to payments made by health authorities for private rented accommodation. It is absolutely unacceptable. It does happen that landlords renting out substandard accommodation do not register with the board. It would be a good move to extend the system to include those benefiting from Health Service Executive subventions.

I disagree with one or two points in the Bill. For example, I do not agree with section 117 which relates to the interest payable on bank accounts being automatically forwarded to the Revenue Commissioners. This is a step too far and an invasion of privacy. People are entitled to bank in confidence without anyone else knowing about it, including the Revenue Commissioners. There is an obligation on taxpayers to pay their due tax, which I fully support, but I do not agree that the Revenue Commissioners should have unfettered access to information on people's private bank accounts. This is a dangerous step. I respectfully ask that if this measure has to be brought forward, that strict safeguards be put in place because it is a breach of confidentiality.

I also disagree with the proposed change in section 15 relating to the remittance basis of taxation which is largely used by the chief executives of multinational companies coming to Ireland.

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