Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The amendment is extremely reasonable. It is basically a request for information of the kind that will ultimately be published in any event by the Revenue Commissioners. With regard to the requests of a number of Deputies to be allowed to go home early, the Minister for Finance could actually speed things up very considerably by simply clarifying the situation, as he did earlier in the evening with a number of other requests for studies, and that he is agreeable to the amendment. We were able to reach an agreement on amendments of mine and of Deputy Doherty. I believe it would be helpful now if the Minister could indicate his position on these amendments. What is requested is information; it is then for the parties to make judgments on what that information will tell us and what positions may be taken as a consequence of it. I do not see that there is any problem in principle with the amendment. The Minister may not like yielding to a request for information, but he has done so now on several occasions in a very reasonable way during the course of the Bill. I strongly appeal to him and recommend that the information be given. He has done it for me, for Deputy McGrath and for Deputy Doherty. We can reach that agreement and probably settle the Bill in the next hour and a half, I presume. People can then go home at a reasonable hour or go on to something else, as the town will just be opening up.

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