I move for leave to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to apply a certain sum out of the Central Fund to the service of the year ending on the 31st day of March, one thousand nine hundred and forty-one and to appropriate to the proper supply services and purposes the sums granted by the Central Fund Act, 1940, and this Act.
Committee on Finance. - Appropriation Bill, 1940—All Stages.
Question put and agreed to.
The Minister for Finance has asked me to inquire if the House would be agreeable to take all stages of this Bill now. He had hoped to be here to take it, but he is still engaged in the Seanad.
Is it not a fact that the Bill was only circulated to-day?
Yes, but it is based on the Estimates, which have already been passed.
You can have it if you like, but it does not seem to me to be a decent proceeding. If you like to perpetrate the indecency, you are welcome to the Bill.
If the Deputy has no strong objection, I should like to get all stages to-day.
To take all Stages to-day would not be at all unprecedented. This Bill merely gives statutory authority to resolutions agreed to in Committee on Finance.
Agreed to take the further stages now.
Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The Banking Commission made a recommendation which would affect Section 2 of this Bill. I do not remember the number of the paragraph of the Commission's Report which dealt with the matter. From the commencement of the State, Section 2 of the Appropriation Bill has been phrased in the form in which it appears here—that the Minister may borrow from any person, or the Bank of Ireland may advance to the Minister, any sum or sums not exceeding the whole sum involved. It has never been necessary to exercise that particular power to its full extent. It is strange that, after so many years, we have not been able to get a phrase more in accordance with the facts of the case. By the time the Bill becomes law, over 20 per cent. of the revenue of the year has been collected. Although this £19,000,000 is only a moiety of that revenue, it seems strange that it should be necessary to have included a provision to collect the whole of the sum involved. One of the drawbacks in connection with the wording of this clause is that, in giving power to raise money, the authority of Parliament is used in a peculiar form. I am merely raising the point for the purpose of finding out if the matter has been considered by the Government, and when it is intended to alter the phraseology.
The Deputy has raised an important point. He, no doubt, is aware that the phraseology of this section has been devised to meet a peculiar situation whereby the Bank of Ireland is, under its charter, forbidden to lend to the Government except with the express authority of Parliament. That is the real purpose of the peculiar wording of the section. It is true that the Banking Commission drew attention to the wide borrowing powers conferred by the present phraseology on the Minister for Finance and recommended that some limitation should be imposed upon them. That matter, together with other recommendations of the Banking Commission, was under consideration by the Minister for Finance some time ago but I presume the Department has not been able, in view of the peculiar circumstances existing since September last, to come to a definite decision as to what should be done.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill considered in Committee.
Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 agreed to.
Schedules and Title agreed to.
Bill reported without amendment.
Question—"That the Bill be received for final consideration"—put and agreed to
Question —"That the Bill do now pass"—put and agreed to.
This is a Money Bill within the meaning of Article 22 of the Constitution.