Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the series of amendments in my name is identical to the purpose of the amendment that has just been proposed by Deputy Joan Burton. I tabled the same amendment on Committee Stage and we had a discussion on it then. I will summarise the argument for it. For many years, the finance code has allowed reduced penalties to be imposed on individuals who come forward voluntarily to say they have been involved in this illegal activity. The Government is saying that after 1 May 2017, they will no longer be able to benefit from reduced penalties. I suggest that such people have had their chance. They were given years to come forward. The inclusion of reduced penalties in a previous Finance Bill many years ago sent out a signal. The individuals who might benefit from the Minister's decision not to bring this to an end before 1 May 2017 have so far decided not to come forward with their hands up and come clean about the tax evasion they have been involved in. They have decided to ride it out. The idea that we would make a legislative provision that will allow this illegal activity to continue with reduced penalties until a date that is eight months away is not acceptable.

It is quite interesting that no date was provided for when we were talking about the flat-rate addition in the context of VAT. I took the Minister at his word when he said that time would be made available. The reality is that under the tax code, the flat-rate addition could be taken from the entire sector within a number of months of this legislation being passed and certainly before 1 May. At the same time, we are telling these tax defaulters that they have a number of months to come forward before the increased penalties will apply. This simple amendment proposes to bring the date forward to 1 January. I listened to the Government's arguments and considered changing the date to 1 March. The Minister mentioned that it would be difficult for these people to get their accountants to put their work together, but that is their problem. I think the State has been overly generous to individuals who have been involved in illegal activity and thereby denied the people of this State revenue that should have been paid many years ago. Therefore, I am continuing to propose that the relevant date should be 1 January, which is still a number of weeks away, and to recommend that the Government and the other parties in the Chamber should support this series of amendments.

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