The "sordid sleight of hand" during the vote on last year's Finance Bill must be avoided when this year's Bill comes before the Dáil on Wednesday, the Labour Party said today.
The party's finance spokesperson, Ms Joan Burton, said five minutes before voting on the Bill last year an undisclosed tax break for investors in a private hospital was revealed. She said the provision was worth tens of millions of euro.
This year's Bill must be given proper Dáil scrutiny, Ms Burton said, calling for a "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" commitment from the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance.
"We still recall with fury the sordid sleight of hand by the Government last year when an important amendment was presented to the Dáil literally in the in the last five minutes of the final stage.
"No proper scrutiny of the measure itself or of the identity of the beneficiaries was possible through the crude use by FF-PD Ministers of the parliamentary guillotine," Ms Burton said.
Labour will oppose the Bill, which Ms Burton says extends tax shelters for the wealthy while forcing modest earners into the higher rate of income tax.
"Tax avoidance has become a colossal industry . . . and this Minister's Finance Acts have given them an unprecedented licence to ply their trade in a manner that has come to exasperate the compliant PAYE taxpayer," she said.
The Finance Bill gives effect to many of the provisions announced in last December's Budget.
