Finance Bill Is Passed Into Law

The final act of the 30th Dail was to pass into law the controversial Finance Bill giving effect to the measures announced in December's budget.

These included spending cuts and tax increases amounting to six billion euro.

The Bill survived a crucial vote on Wednesday with the support of Independent TDs Michael Lowry and Jackie Healy-Rae.

A finance bill normally takes up to three months to come into law.

It is debated by the Dail, analyzed by Dail committees and sent to the Seanad for consideration.

But because the government was on the brink of collapse, a deal was struck to expedite it within a week.

The Finance Minister met his opposition counterparts last Monday and they agreed to clear the Dail's agenda for the week so that no other business would be conducted other than the debate on the Finance Bill.

That meant there would be no Leaders' Questions and crucially no debate on a Labour Party motion of no confidence in the government.

Fine Gael and Labour said they would continue to vote against the Finance Bill, but they would facilitate its passage through the Dail quickly in order to secure a speedy general election.

Sinn Fein called it "a grubby deal" insisting that the confidence motion should have gone ahead, and an election held before any Finance Bill was introduced.

Fine Gael pointed out that the Bill was a crucial element of the deal struck between the State and the IMF/EU.

The Finance Bill passed all stages, including the committee stages, in the Dail by Thursday.

It was then debated by the Seanad, which held special sittings on Friday and Saturday.

The support of two independents was only secured after a number of changes were made to the Bill.

These included the dropping of a provision that would have required farmers and the self-employed to file their tax returns one month earlier, and the inclusion of tax reliefs for families with more than one child in college, and a tax measure aimed at limiting bankers' bonuses.

Because the Finance Bill was rushed through, a number of key provisions were not implemented including new tax laws for gay couples who become civil partners under new laws enacted this year.

All parties have promised to introduce the necessary amendments within months of the new government being formed.