I beg to move:—
That the Dáil approves of the International Convention on the Stamp Laws in connection with Cheques (with Protocol), signed at Geneva on the 19th day of March, 1931, a copy of which was laid on the Table of the Dáil on the 9th day of June, 1936, and recommends the Executive Council to take the necessary steps to accede to the said International Convention and Protocol.
The Convention on the Stamp Laws in connection with Cheques is one of six Conventions, which may be described, for convenience, as the "Stamp Laws Conventions." It was adopted by an International Conference held at Geneva in the summer of 1930 and the early part of 1931. That Conference was convened by the Council of the League of Nations to consider the Report of a Committee of Legal Experts on the Unification of Laws on Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes and cheques.
Although Saorstát Eireann was asked by the League Council to send a Delegation to the Conference, it was decided to decline the invitation in view of the fact that the work of the Conference did not appear likely to seriously affect the stamp laws at present in force in this country.
In the result that decision has been fully justified, seeing that our accession to two only of the six conventions concluded there now appears to be desirable or necessary. Our accession to the Stamp Laws Convention concerning cheques can indeed be made without entailing any change whatever in our relevant statute law.
As Deputies will see from Article 1 of the convention, it is intended to facilitate the use of cheques as a convenient medium of payment in commercial transactions between nationals of the various States parties to the convention. The fact that a foreign cheque is not properly stamped in accordance with the national law of the country in which it falls to be paid, will not be allowed to react to the detriment of the payee of that cheque in any State which has become a party to the convention. Obviously, such an arrangement is a desirable one in principle and must, in practice, be of benefit to traders in this country as the convention is already being implemented by many States with which we have the closest financial and economic relations, namely, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Spain. Our law on the matter of stamping cheques is contained in the Stamp Act of 1891, which has been continued in operation by virtue of Article 73 of the Constitution. Section 38 (2) of that Act provides that where cheques have not been properly stamped by the drawer this defect may always be remedied at the time of their presentation. The Revenue Commissioners may, of course, at present refuse to recognise the validity of an unstamped foreign cheque, pending the payment of the appropriate stamp duty, but this right is specifically safeguarded in the text of the convention itself.
Motion approved.