I beg to move:
That the Dáil approves of the International Convention on the Stamp Laws in connection with Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes (with Protocol), signed at Geneva on the 7th day of June, 1930, 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.
This motion has the same effect, but has reference to promissory notes and bills of exchange.
This Convention was adopted by the same international conference to which I have referred just now, when speaking on the motion to recommend accession to the Convention on the stamp laws in connection with cheques. As in the case of cheques which are used for the purpose of liquidating international commercial transactions, the laws of various countries, including our own, require a stamp to be affixed to a bill of exchange to give it legal validity. Lack of entire uniformity as between the various States in this matter must necessarily result at times in much inconvenience, if not in positive cases of hardship. If all parties are in the same country, they can all quite reasonably be expected to know the stamp laws, and the discounter of an unstamped bill must accept the consequences of his action. When, however, a bill goes abroad, the case is quite different. It is not reasonable to expect a foreigner to know that our stamp laws provide that an unstamped bill cannot be made available for any purpose whatsoever, and it is unreasonable and inequitable that the drawer of a bill, who knew it ought to be stamped, should be able to escape his liability by deliberately leaving the bill unstamped.
The main object, therefore, of the Stamp Laws Convention in connection with bills of exchange and promissory notes is to secure that bona-fide holders of these instruments will not suffer in their rights thereunder merely because of some defect or omission in stamping formalities. So far as this object involves bills of exchange or promissory notes presented for acceptance or accepted or payable outside Saorstát Eireann, we are prepared to further it by acceding to the Convention and by amending our law appropriately. We are not, however, inclined to extend the principle in question to bills which do not go outside Saorstát Eireann, and we propose that our accession to the Convention should be made subject to a reservation to that effect.
The amendment of our stamp laws which I have mentioned as being necessary to give effect to the Convention here is provided for in the Finance Bill which was introduced in this House on the 3rd June, 1936, by the Minister for Finance.
In conclusion, I may add that I understand from the Minister for Finance that the present yield of stamp duties from bills of exchange will not be appreciably affected as a result of the accession of Saorstát Eireann to the Stamp Laws Convention in connection with bills of exchange and promissory notes.
Motion approved.