Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I am not going to delay on this amendment, I believe the business community should be aware of this measure. This will bring about big changes after what was decided in the High Court. I object to what is happening in the Bill, and I have made this point time and again. I did not realise this fully because I did not read the admittedly helpful notes from the Government on this Bill as I wanted to do my own reading on the Bill before I read what the Government was saying. However, while I was making the allegation that these amendments were designed to overcome court cases, in fact, it is its specific intention to overcome a High Court case where taxpayers and ratepayers got a bit of a break. Now, we are coming in to say the court was wrong and that we must change this. There should be huge concern about this as it will increase rates bills pretty dramatically for some businesses. I do not believe it is a fair use of parliamentary procedure that we just come in and change court decisions. It is fundamentally wrong.