Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Sections 1 to 38 at the beginning of the Bill are of most interest to Members and include the changes to pension provisions, the universal social charge and section 23 tax breaks. Today's schedule allowed very little time for that part and considerable time for areas including giving Revenue extra powers in combating tax evasion and so on. We should devote most of the time to sections 1 to 38 because many Members want to contribute on those and, as the Minister of State knows, the debate on Report Stage is truncated anyway. If three or four hours are being allocated to Report Stage, on behalf of the Labour Party I ask the Minister of State to consider, together with the Whips, devoting the bulk of that time to sections 1 to 38 because there was not enough time for Members to raise any queries or make any point today.

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