The Bill will be circulated this evening. Would next Wednesday suit for the Second Stage?
Finance Bill, 1975. - Finance Bill, 1975: First Stage.
Leave granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to charge and impose certain duties of customs and inland revenue (including excise) to amend the law relating to customs and inland revenue (including excise) and to make further provisions in connection with finance.
—(Minister for Finance.)
I am afraid that would be far too early. The Minister will recall that the last Finance Bill, because of statutory requirements, resulted in an all-night sitting and nevertheless the House failed to reach many important sections of the Bill. That cannot be cured simply by rushing the Bill through without adequate time for consideration. Next Wednesday is far too early to order the next stage of the Finance Bill when it is only being circulated this evening.
I believe Deputy Colley is really referring to the Committee Stage rather than the Second Stage. What I had in mind was that we might have an early Committee Stage and this will allow for a fortnight to intervene between the Second Stage and the Committee Stage but if the House wishes perhaps we could fix the Second Stage for this day fortnight?
Perhaps we could agree to order it for that date and let the Whips discuss the actual date so that it would not be before the date suggested by the Minister.
(Dublin Central): Could the Minister give any indication of how many sections there will be in the Finance Bill?
I cannot recall at the moment.
It is fairly large, I am sure.
In relation to what Deputy Colley has said, although I appreciate that we have not absolutely fixed this day fortnight, we cannot fix any date substantially later because the Second Stage of this Bill must be taken within 20 sitting days of the passage of the budget. The last day on a normal sitting schedule when this Bill could be read for the second time would be 4th March. Deputy Colley will appreciate that there is not a lot of elbow room if a fortnight is allowed before the Second Reading debate begins and that will effectively limit the amount of time which the Second Reading debate can occupy. Perhaps the Opposition Whip and I can talk about that.
As the Parliamentary Secretary pointed out on another occasion in the House, there is a good deal of financial legislation to be got through including, in particular, the Finance Bill. As the Parliamentary Secretary has pointed out there is a statutory time limit but nevertheless we cannot tolerate a recurrence of what happened on the last Finance Bill. Therefore, the Minister, and the Government, may have to give consideration to the statutory time limit in this year if the business cannot be got through in the time. I think it should be accepted that whatever happens we are not going to rush through the Finance Bill, or any other Bill, without adequate consideration.
I accept, and I think the Government generally accept, that the time limit under which we are now operating is perhaps restrictive and we may have to have a look at it again. However, it is there at the moment. I should like to point out yet again that the unseemly all-night sittings to which the Deputy has referred meant that the section of the Finance Bill which has now left us in this situation was not discussed on the Committee Stage. This was the consequence of an agreement, a perfectly clear agreement about the disposal of the Committee Stage, not having been adhered to. I see no reason why that should happen in regard to the Second Stage which is all we are concerned with now and I see no reason why the Committee Stage should not get ample discussion after Easter.
I do not wish to pursue this except to say that my interpretation of the facts would be slightly different from that of the Parliamentary Secretary.
It would have helped and we probably would have avoided this discussion if the Finance Bill had been circulated about two weeks ago.
That is the real trouble.
Could we have an indication as to the date?
25th February?
Is this satisfactory?
Yes.