The net point here involved is that the Bill as submitted by the Minister, contemplates certain pretty complicated changes in respect of the existing law in regard to the expenses of directors, managers and employees of companies. The Minister himself indicated that he fully appreciated that the proposed amendment was complex and Deputy Haughey, in his contribution to the debate, said that he had studied the proposals and believed that he understood the context of the Bill. He expressed himself as being in agreement with my view that, even if one did fully understand the context of the Bill, it was extremely difficult to forecast how these provisions would react on people living in the conditions obtaining in rural Ireland.
We all know that these proposals have been taken over substantially from British Finance Acts, and some of us believe that in their present form they are suitable for conditions obtaining in places like London, Manchester, Liverpool and in the general industrial context of life in Great Britain, but that they may not be suitable for conditions obtaining here. I am prepared to confess quite frankly that I am not able to determine, in my own mind, how these provisions would impact on the bulk of our people who live in rural Ireland.
We are, in this House, sometimes inclined to overlook the fact that a surprising number of small businesses in rural Ireland have been incorporated into limited liability companies during the past 20 or 30 years. Therefore, without purporting to pass judgment on these proposals at all, the substance of my submission is that, inasmuch as we have sitting at present a commission to review the whole code of income-tax law, it would be more appropriate to leave this part of the Finance Bill to that commission, and ask them, if necessary, to give an interim report upon it, when this House could consider it with full information.
I put it to the Minister for Finance that if he considers it to be a matter of urgency, there could be no exception taken to his dropping this part of the Bill for the present, on the clear understanding that if the Commission on Income-Tax gives us an interim report on these proposals during the Recess, the Minister for Finance could declare himself to be free to bring in an additional Finance Bill in the autumn to give effect to this proposal in whatever form he was satisfied was best, having perused an informed report and having had before him such evidence as interested parties might bring to the Income-Tax Commission.
I could quite envisage a situation arising in which the Minister would not be prepared to accept the interim report of the Income-Tax Commission, but at least it would be available to him for consideration. But, in my opinion, what is much more important, he would have available to him the representations of those who apprehended that these proposals might impact upon them unfairly, or unreasonably, or to a degree which had not been contemplated by the Minister when he submitted this Bill to the House. That is a reasonable proposal and a proposal which the Minister can reasonably be asked to consider on its merits, but also in the light of the declaration which I am prepared to make that I do not know how these proposals will operate in the conditions with which I am familiar in rural Ireland.
I direct the Minister's attention to the fact that Deputy Haughey, who claims to have a very much clearer appreciation of the literal provisions of this part of the Bill, is also in my dilemma in so far as forecasting their impact upon the peculiar conditions obtaining in this country. I use the word "peculiar" not for the purpose of indicating something strange, but to indicate that there are conditions obtaining in Ireland which may not be reproduced in Great Britain or elsewhere.