Seanad debates

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Finance Bill 2011 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed).

 

3:00 pm

Photo of Liam TwomeyLiam Twomey (Fine Gael)

The reason the Minister changed the legislation earlier in the Dáil was predominately to facilitate the farming community. Single farm payments are made in the middle of October and farmers would have been expected to pay tax on income earned two weeks after the deadline. It would have been a matter of great concern to farming communities to have to pay up-front based on a cheque expected in the post two weeks afterwards. This was the main thrust of the case made by Deputies Healy-Rae and Michael Lowry. It is a pity there was no taxation expert available to explain capital acquisitions taxation issues to Deputy Jackie Healy-Rae. Otherwise, perhaps the Minister would not have found himself in this position. Now, he must try to correct a problem he made for himself.

In some respects this is a technical amendment. If one seeks proper continuity in taxation legislation and one seeks to line things up properly, it stands to reason that what Senator Regan is suggesting is correct. The Minister should get rid of this section. I am unsure whether it is because he does not wish to discommode the same Deputy Healy-Rae, drag him up from Kerry at 8 p.m. and have him correct the legislation after he went to so much trouble some time ago to sort it out for the Government. Senator Regan is correct.

This section should be amended, not in the way proposed by this side of the House but in the way outlined by the Minister for Finance in the explanatory memorandum to last year's finance Act.

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