I intend to propose the acceptance of all the Recommendations from the Seanad to this Bill. The first Recommendation is:—
Section 5, sub-section (9). That a new sub-section be inserted before the sub-section, as follows:—
"(9) Every re-hearing of an appeal by the Circuit Court under Section 196 of the Income Tax Act, 1918, shall be held in camera, and every hearing by the High Court or the Supreme Court of a case stated under Section 149 of the said Act or under that section as extended by Section 10 of the Finance Act, 1924 (No. 27 of 1924) shall, if the person whose chargeability to tax is the subject of the case so desires, be held in camera."
This recommendation covers a matter which was raised when the Bill was before the Dáil by Deputy J.X. Murphy. It is a matter which had not been brought to my attention previous to its having been mentioned by Deputy Murphy, and I was not able to accept it then as I felt that it required some consideration and also, if it were accepted, that it might cause the Finance Bill to be no longer a Money Bill. As it was raised again and became a Recommendation in the Seanad, I see no objection to it. It will not prevent the reporting in the Law Reports of cases which may be decided in camera, but such cases will be reported as the case of X. or the case of Y. As I say, I have not heard very much about it. I heard, first, Deputy Murphy's complaint, and a few other instances. I cannot see that the adoption of this Recommendation will do any harm, and it may, in certain cases, prevent what individuals would feel as a hardship, namely, the divulgence of matters connected with their private affairs which so far as the hearing before special Commissioners or before the Circuit Court in the ordinary way is concerned, did not come to the public notice at all heretofore.