Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is one of the most fantastic "Alice in Wonderland" scripts I have ever heard. Changing the rules is now defined in the new Eurospeak as clarification. The rules were very clear. Unfortunately, people will have to pursue this on the basis of what the rules were when they applied. I have no problem with somebody realising a scheme is not to his or her liking and deciding to change the rules. That is perfectly legitimate. Departments do that all the time but the rule is that it cannot be done post factum. In other words, the rules that apply on the day one applies are the rules that apply. There is no point in pointing to the Finance Act, for two reasons. The Act is moot on the point we are discussing, namely, that of the businesses excluded. Second, it is post factumas well. The scheme was introduced and the applications were submitted before the law became law. Therefore, how could the scheme have been introduced before the will of the Oireachtas was known? The Government cannot presume on what the Oireachtas will do. The Minister of State might remember that, in the term of the last Dail, a famous Bill was introduced that was to amalgamate Galway city and county councils but the Oireachtas decided the Government could not do it. It is a presumption for the Government, if it did not have the administrative ability to introduce the scheme, to introduce it on the assumption that the Oireachtas would bring in a law to honour the commitment it had given to the people in the budget.

I call on the Minister of State to save everybody the time involved in proceeding to litigation on this issue, if they must do so, admit the position on those applications submitted under the old scheme and stop the "Alice in Wonderland" talk about clarifying. What was meant was perfectly clear to everybody except the Department of Finance. There was a very precise written document. The Government should pay those who applied to the scheme on time and admit that it had to change the rules because it did not intend for their applications to be included.

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