Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 495: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a list of the Acts or sections or other provisions of Acts coming wholly or partly under the auspices of his Department, or for the commencement of which his Department is wholly or partly responsible, which are not yet in force and which require the future making of a commencement order; if, in each case, it is intended to make such an order; if so, when; the reason for the failure to make such an order to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24896/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There are currently five Acts for which my Department has responsibility which fall within the ambit of the question, namely, the Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005, the Superannuation and Pensions Act 1976, the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2004, the Finance Act 2003 and the Finance Act 2005.

The Civil Service Regulation (Amendment) Act 2005 was enacted on 9 July. The Act requires a commencement order to be signed by the Minister for Finance before the provisions, other than Parts 9 and 11, come into effect. Part 9 of the Act, which relates to changes in the arrangements for local state solicitors, is to be commenced on a date set by the Taoiseach. Part 11, dealing with public service superannuation, is deemed to have come into effect on 1 April 2004. It is proposed to commence section 8 of the Act, which will allow the appointment of persons over 65 to the Civil Service as "new entrants", as soon as possible. This section must be commenced in order to be able to legally appoint any successful candidate over the age of 65 which is important in ensuring equality of opportunity in upcoming recruitment competitions.

The new Act introduces significant changes to the human resource management procedures in the Civil Service. It makes clear that underperformance must be dealt with as a disciplinary matter. To give full effect to this and other changes, the current disciplinary code, drafted in the context of the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956, must be revised. The code is agreed between management and staff unions under the Civil Service conciliation and arbitration scheme. Discussions on the issue are about to begin. I will be considering commencement of the remaining sections of the Act in light of progress in these discussions between my Department and the Civil Service unions. Following detailed consideration on the management side, a draft was circulated to the Civil Service unions so that discussions can begin this month. My Department is treating this issue as a matter of priority.

Sections 2(7) and section 11 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act 1976 have not come into operation. Section 2 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act 1976 provides for Civil Service superannuation schemes to be made by means of secondary legislation. Section 11 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act 1976 provides for the repeal, in whole or in part, of enactments mentioned in the Second Schedule to the Act. The provision in section 11 was made so that, in the event of a new Civil Service superannuation scheme being made under section 2 to replace the existing scheme, a simple means would have been provided for the repeal of earlier primary legislation. Section 2(12) provides that section 2(7) will come into operation on the commencement of section 11. No scheme has been made to date under section 2 which required the bringing into operation of section 11. If a scheme were to be made in the future, the advice of the Attorney General would be sought as to whether section 2 could be used or whether primary legislation would be necessary.

The Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2004, Schedule 3, Part 1, item 1 has not been commenced. Following consultation with the insurance industry, the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, IFSRA, asked for its implementation to be deferred. The issue is being further considered by IFSRA and it is unlikely to be commenced for some time yet.

With regard to mandatory electronic filing and payment of tax, section 164 of the Finance Act 2003 deals with regulations to oblige specified taxpayers to file their tax returns and pay their tax liabilities electronically. This was introduced as an enabling provision, should the need arise, and it is not expected that commencement of the section will be necessary in the short term.

With regard to taxation of gains from share options of internationally mobile employees and directors, section 16 of the Finance Act 2005 amends section 128 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 which imposes an income tax charge on gains realised by directors or employees from the exercise of rights granted to them, by reason of their office or employment, to acquire shares or other assets in a company. The amendment extends the charge to cases where the recipient of the rights was not resident in the State when the rights were granted. The issues involved in applying the provisions of this section are still under examination by the Revenue Commissioners and, in addition, there are ongoing discussions with practitioners on certain aspects. It is not possible, at this stage, to state when the examination and discussions will be complete and a commencement order can be made.

On further provisions for qualifying farmers, section 32 of the Finance Act 2005 continues the special incentive stock relief of 100% for certain young trained farmers for a further two years from 1 January 2005 until 31 December 2006. The section provides that the extension to this relief will be commenced by an order of the Minister for Finance. This order has not yet been signed due to the consideration of certain EU related aspects of the relief.

Section 42 amends Chapter 5 of Part 26 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, which deals with the taxation of policyholders of life assurance companies in respect of new basis business, which is the regime introduced in the Finance Act 2000. It adds a new chargeable event on the ending of each seven-year period following the inception of the policy. The purpose of this is to ensure that exit tax cannot be deferred indefinitely by the continual rolling over of a life assurance policy without it becoming chargeable to tax. The section is subject to commencement by order of the Minister for Finance, and different commencement dates may be applied to different provisions of the section or to different classes of life assurance policies. It is intended to make such an order. In this regard, officials of my Department and the Revenue Commissioners met with the Irish Insurance Federation, IIF, in June 2005 to discuss the issues involved and they have been asked to respond on the matter, at which stage a further meeting will be held with the industry with a view to having the topic finalised.

Chapter 3 of Part 2 consolidates and modernises all of the law on tobacco products tax. This will be commenced in its totality but not until early next year as the Revenue Commissioners wish to prepare and finalise regulations to be made under the new legislation before commencing it. The Revenue Commissioners also want instructions for the implementation of the legislation by their staff to be drawn up before the Chapter is commenced.

Section 64(b) introduces a new schedule of rates for fuel to include for the first time a rate for sulphur free unleaded petrol. The rate will be the current rate for unleaded petrol generally, while unleaded petrol that is not sulphur free will be set at a new higher rate. A new category of sulphur free heavy oil is also included for the first time to be chargeable to excise at the current rate for low sulphur heavy oil. The reason that this is uncommenced is that arrangements for the introduction of sulphur free petrol and diesel have not yet been finalised by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.