Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too have no big issue with the Bill. As Deputy Kelleher said, fewer than 0.5% of companies apply to the District Court on foot of late filing. However, that option is available. It is a local solution and it is not overly onerous or expensive. I know that we want to uphold the concepts of good governance and proper accounting, but I feel we are legislating here to deal with white collar crime, or bigger companies who might prevaricate and delay or go to courts for reasons that are not always genuine. In doing this, we will catch and penalise small companies. I refer to limited companies that are small and that do not have the resources, the time or the ability to go to the High Court. They can put their reasons for late filing forward at the District Court. They can file returns late if they have genuine reasons. The matter is resolved locally, and the companies are not afraid to go before their peers or the local District Court. The High Court, as any of us who has been there will have seen, has a backlog amounting to hundreds of cases. It is a totally unwieldy system as it is. All kinds of cases are heard, and a business that has to appear there will have to pay solicitors and barristers and junior counsel for three days, which is punitive. It is using a sledgehammer to crack a chestnut and it does not make sense.

Let us leave this at local level to the District Court. I ask the Minister to consider sections 9 and 10, because they provide for another layer of expense and difficulties foisted on SMEs and small companies that cannot afford it.

It is different for the conglomerates and the big heavy hitters as they have their own legal teams on hand all of the time. They are used to dealing with various issues causing late filing, for example, trying to take over other companies. There are genuine cases where people have ill-health or something has happened so accountants are unable to file. A couple of years ago my accountant's mother died. One tax officer was very lenient with him but another was very demanding that all of the companies he represented had to have filed by the deadline no matter who died or what happened. There needs to be flexibility. As we know, the majority are paying their way and paying their taxes. They want to work with their accountant locally. The accountant does not have time to be going off to the High Court. I appeal for common sense to prevail. It is difficult enough for businesses having to engage with company legislation and the plethora of other legislation, such as employment legislation and health and safety legislation. It is putting huge demands on companies and there is not a lot of leeway. I support the amendments that have been tabled proposing that this be left at local level in the District Court.

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