Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Pearse Doherty, Sean Fleming and Michael McGrath for their reflections on the proposed legislation. It is complicated and technical, and we will get into it in more detail. I will touch upon as many of the issues that I can. The figure of 3,600 cases or thereabouts was referred to earlier. The current figure - as of this week - is 3,479 cases with an overall quantum of €2.6 billion.

Deputy McGrath referred to the amended tax assessments. The Deputy will be aware that Revenue has independence in the administration of the tax system and the Minister cannot and will not, nor would he wish to, interfere with Revenue on this matter. I note the Deputy's concerns and will actively bring those to the Minister and his officials to engage with Revenue to try to understand any emerging trends such as those the Deputy McGrath mentioned. The chairperson will also be an appeals commissioner, which is important. We hope that this, together with the three additional temporary commissioners, will enable significant inroads to be made in the appeals backlog. Nobody benefits from having too long an appeal on the matter.

Deputy Doherty referred to section 13. This was discussed at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage. Some concerns were voiced regarding proposed changes due to the procedures for the case stated. In the report of the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, requested further consideration of whether the TAC should be able to request either party to an appeal to provide documentation in the case stated so that all required and appropriate documentation is available to the High Court. That has been taken on board and the change was made when drafting section 13, which reflects this suggestion. The amendment will allow the commission to request documentation of either party regarding the case stated.

Other points were made in the pre-legislative scrutiny with regard to the prospectus. Deputy Doherty highlighted the prospectus threshold in other countries. They are retaining their prospectus at €5 million but a number of other EU member states such as the UK - for however much longer - and France, Denmark, Finland and Italy are to increase their prospectus threshold to €8 million. We want to try to give companies the opportunity to source funding beyond bank lending. Beyond banks, our jurisdiction has few sources of moneys to companies. For the vast majority in this jurisdiction, it is how companies bring in funding. In other jurisdictions, it is much less. In the US, for example, it is approximately 30%.

The Central Bank will also serve to enhance the protections. I am sure we will go through these in much more detail on Committee Stage.

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