Finance Bill, 1983: Fifth Stage.

Minister for Finance (Mr. Dukes)

I move "That the Bill do now pass".

Mr. O'Kennedy

The Bill now contains 122 sections. When the Bill came in here first it contained 111 sections, so obviously there have been some very significant developments since it was first introduced here. Some of those developments have derived, I am glad to say, from amendments which we put down on Committee Stage. These minimised the impact of some of the draconian proposals introduced in this Bill, proposals which certainly would penalise investment even more than the provisions which now stand in the Bill will do. For that reason we submitted over 55 amendments to this Bill on Committee Stage and over 15 amendments on Report Stage. That in itself is significant, coming from an Opposition. Even more significant is that the Bill as it now stands contains over 80 amendments submitted by the Minister himself on Committee Stage and a further 20 or so on Report Stage. That demonstrates that if ever a Bill was brought into this House hurriedly and without due consideration, this is the Bill, and I say that not only in terms of its drafting. That is not of great concern at all to us, although it is serious in terms of the powers which have been granted which the Minister himself as yet does not even ascertain. Much more important is that, obviously, little or no thought was given to the effects that some of these proposals would have on the very things that we need to promote: incentive, investment and the capacity to do it for ourselves. Every single amendment that we put down, whether in relation to the tax bands and the broadening of them, the reduction of the 65 per cent rate to 60 per cent, the lifting of the levy in that area in relation to the tax bands and income tax generally, was designed to encourage the work ethic and to ensure that the growth of taxation which we have seen particularly as a consequence of the budget and this Bill would be stopped before it could do irreparable damage to that very important element in our society, the incentive to work. Hand in hand with that the incentive to do it for ourselves has been undermined in this Bill and wherever investment might have been promoted it was discouraged.

We put down amendments to maintain the credits for public companies which were introduced in 1932. We remember that date. That was when we were promoting the development of our own industries. What was done in 1932 is undone now. Just when we need incentive for ourselves, it has been taken from us. Above all else, in his zeal to give the impression that tax equity equals penalising all and sundry, particularly anyone who owns property or who proposes to do something for himself, the Minister was proposing to introduce powers for the Revenue Commissioners that would have made it a crime for an accountant to furnish, for instance, accounts submitted negligently to him. The whole thrust of this Bill was in the wrong direction.

Mr. Dukes

Those provisions were already in legislation brought in and passed previously.

Mr. O'Kennedy

He has now acknowledged and withdrawn it and we are glad that he has. With the money that he tried to chase out of the country through the introduction of affidavits to be sworn by foreigners investing in Ireland the whole banking system could have been undermined. All confidence in the country would have been undermined but for the fact that the Opposition, despite all the pressure with barely enough time to look through this, put down every possible amendment they could in order to bring about some degree of sanity. I regret that we were not able to bring about total sanity and that despite our best efforts some of the things that were started, even if withdrawn subsequently by the Minister, would have done irreparable damage. At least we can say that we have made our best effort in this, the longest of all debates on the Finance Bill, to make it less damaging than it would have been.

Mr. Haughey

I want to contribute very briefly on one important aspect of this Finance Bill and the discussion that has taken place. This is a monumental piece of financial legislation. It has made very significant changes in our tax structure and in many of our traditional ways of dealing with taxation matters, many of these changes entirely damaging and detrimental. I do not want to deal with that aspect because my colleague, Deputy O'Kennedy, has dealt with it consistently here while we have been debating this legislation. However, I want to say to the Minister and the Government that the way this Bill has been put through this House and the limited amount of time afforded to the Opposition to deal with monumental legislation of this size makes a mockery of all the talk from that side of the House about Dáil reform and enabling this House to deal more effectively with financial business. The fact that the Government have forced this Bill through in the way they have done means that they are not serious about Dáil reform in financial matters. They can set up all the committees they wish, but when the most important piece of financial legislation in the year is pushed and rushed through in the way they have done it without accepting the most reasonable amendments they are only wasting the time of all of us about Dáil reform in financial matters.

The Dáil divided: Tá, 75; Níl, 69.

Tá

Allen, Bernard.
Barnes, Monica.
Barrett, Seán.
Barry, Myra.
Begley, Michael.
Bermingham, Joe.
Birmingham, George Martin.
Boland, John.
Bruton, John.
Bruton, Richard.
Burke, Liam.
Carey, Donal.
Collins, Edward.
Conlon, John F.
Connaughton, Paul.
Coogan, Fintan.
Cooney, Patrick Mark.
Cosgrave, Liam T.
Cosgrave, Michael Joe. Coveney, Hugh.
Creed, Donal.
Crowley, Frank.
D'Arcy, Michael.
Desmond, Barry.
Desmond, Eileen.
Donnellan, John.
Dowling, Dick.
Doyle, Avril.
Doyle, Joe.
Dukes, Alan.
Durkan, Bernard J.
Enright, Thomas W.
Farrelly, John V.
Fennell, Nuala.
FitzGerald, Garret.
Flaherty, Mary.
Glenn, Alice.
Harte, Patrick D.
Hegarty, Paddy.
Hussey, Gemma.
Kavanagh, Liam.
Keating, Michael.
Kelly, John.
Kenny, Enda.
L'Estrange, Gerry.
McCartin, Joe.
McGahon, Brendan.
McGinley, Dinny.
McLoughlin, Frank.
Manning, Maurice.
Mitchell, Gay.
Mitchell, Jim.
Molony, David.
Moynihan, Michael.
Naughten, Liam.
Nealon, Ted.
Noonan, Michael. (Limerick East).
O'Brien, Fergus.
O'Brien, Willie.
O'Donnell, Tom.
O'Keeffe, Jim.
O'Leary, John.
O'Sullivan, Toddy.
O'Toole, Paddy.
Owen, Nora.
Pattison, Séamus.
Quinn, Ruairí.
Ryan, John.
Shatter, Alan.
Sheehan, Patrick Joseph.
Skelly, Liam.
Spring, Dick.
Taylor-Quinn, Madeline.
Timmins, Godfrey.
Treacy, Seán.

Níl

Ahern, Bertie.
Ahern, Michael.
Andrews, David.
Aylward, Liam.
Barrett, Michael.
Barrett, Sylvester.
Brady, Gerard.
Brady, Vincent.
Brennan, Mattie.
Brennan, Paudge.
Brennan, Séamus.
Briscoe, Ben.
Browne, John.
Burke, Raphael P.
Byrne, Hugh.
Byrne, Seán.
Colley, George.
Collins, Gerard.
Conaghan, Hugh.
Connolly, Ger.
Coughlan, Cathal Seán.
Cowen, Bernard.
De Rossa, Proinsias.
Fahey, Francis.
Fahey, Jackie.
Nolan, M.J.
Noonan, Michael J. (Limerick West).
O'Dea, William.
O'Hanlon, Rory.
O'Keeffe, Edmond.
O'Kennedy, Michael.
O'Leary, John.
Ormonde, Donal.
O'Rourke, Mary.
Fitzgerald, Gene.
Fitzgerald, Liam Joseph.
Fitzsimons, Jim.
Flynn, Pádraig.
Gallagher, Denis.
Gallagher, Pat Cope.
Geoghegan-Quinn, Máire.
Gregory-Independent, Tony.
Harney, Mary.
Haughey, Charles J.
Hilliard, Colm.
Hyland, Liam.
Kirk, Séamus.
Kitt, Michael.
Lemass, Eileen.
Lenihan, Brian.
Leonard, Jimmy.
Leyden, Terry.
Lyons, Denis.
McCarthy, Seán.
McEllistrim, Tom.
Mac Giolla, Tomás.
MacSharry, Ray.
Molloy, Robert.
Morley, P.J.
Moynihan, Donal.
Power, Paddy.
Reynolds, Albert. Treacy, Noel.
Tunney, Jim.
Walsh, Joe.
Walsh, Seán.
Wilson, John P.
Woods, Michael.
Wyse, Pearse.

Tellers: Tá: Deputies Barrett(Dún Laoghaire) and Quinn; Níl, Deputies B. Ahern and Briscoe.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Bill is certified a Money Bill in accordance with Article 22 of the Constitution.

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 31 May 1983