Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 72 applies a levy to certain financial institutions, set at 35% of the DIRT paid in 2011. The levy will operate for a period of three years and will be payable on 20 October in each of the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. The levy is projected to raise a sum of €150 million per year.

Part 5 deals with miscellaneous provisions. Section 77 provides for an exemption from tax for ex gratia payments made by the Ministers for Justice and Equality and Defence and certain payments made by the Minister for Social Protection to beneficiaries pursuant to the Magdalen commission report. This exempts women who obtained funds under the Government decision from tax and the section deals with the treatment of these payments under tax law.

Section 78 amends the mitigation powers of the Revenue Commissioners and the Minister for Finance regarding various fines and penalties

Section 79 amends section 917D of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 by including "the Customs Acts" in the range of taxes and duties to which electronic filing of returns and electronic payment of tax and duties will apply. The specific returns and payments to be made electronically will be set out by our colleagues in the Revenue Commissioners.

Section 81 amends section 851A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 to ensure external service providers, which may be engaged by the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of carrying out work relating to the administration of taxes and duties, are subject to the same confidentiality rules regarding non-disclosure of taxpayer information as Revenue officers.

Section 85 provides for the 61st annuity to be paid from the Exchequer current account to the capital services redemption account in respect of the estimated borrowings to be taken out in 2014 for voted capital expenditure. This system of annuities was implemented by section 22 of the Finance Act 1950 to avoid borrowings for voted capital expenditure making a permanent addition to the national debt.

Sections 86 and 87 cover standard annual provisions.

I hope in setting out briefly the various sections that Senators will take the opportunity on all Stages to examine the financial statements made by the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform in October in the round. That the Bill must be enacted by 31 December represents a major logistical and seismic change in the way in which finance Bills are treated. I very much hope the oversight, questions and analysis, which was useful in during the debate in the other House, will continue in this House, as it has in the past.