Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 25, line 27, after "income" to insert "or capital gains".

This is a largely technical matter. I understand the EU Court of Justice challenged the treatment of income from the UK that Ireland had been in the practising of dealing with in a certain way. There was a successful challenge to that. Section 18, which deals with the tax treatment of certain possessions in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, addresses this issue. We mended our hand following a challenge to the existing practice.

It has been brought to my attention that the same weakness in our system exists in respect of the treatment of capital gains tax. It appears the Government is moving to close the loophole in respect of the treatment of income tax but not the treatment of capital gains tax. The point made to me was that if the weakness in respect of the latter is brought to the attention of the EU authorities, they will make a similar ruling, on foot of which we will have to make a similar adjustment to our tax treatment provisions. We ought to mend our hand in respect of all cases equivalent to the one associated with income tax.

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