Dunnes Stores challenge over Plastic Bag Levy

Dunnes Stores who have been served with a 36.4 million euro bill for alleged uncollected and undue payments arising from a plastic bag levy have secured leave from the High Court to challenge the validity of the levy.
Dunnes Stores is disputing the Revenue Commissioners’ tax assessments of November last, covering a four-year period, on grounds including that the definition of plastic bag in the 2001 regulations is “so uncertain” as to render the regulations invalid.
Dunnes claims the levy relates to larger bags given to customers at point of sale to hold their shopping but that the assessments wrongly include other bags used for wrapping or hygiene purposes.
The regulations, Dunnes alleges, are invalid because they are not for the recovery of “waste” as defined by the Waste Management Act.
The company claims a plastic bag provided to a customer of a supermarket, service station or other sales outlet does not constitute waste and does not become waste until the holder discards it or forms an intention to discard it.
Paul Sreenan SC, for Dunnes, said yesterday the company has always been and remains a strong supporter of the plastic bag levy but is strongly disputing the tax assessments.
He said the issues raised by the company could not be addressed in an appeal to the Revenue Appeals Commissioners against the assessment, but only in judicial review proceedings.
Mr Justice Michael Peart granted leave for the bringing of the challenge after finding the company had met the required arguable case threshold. He also granted a stay preventing the Revenue taking any steps on foot of the assessments pending the outcome of the case which will be mentioned again next month.
The action is against: the Revenue Commissioners; the Minister for the Environment and Local Government; Ireland; and the Attorney General.
Dunnes is seeking orders quashing assessments made under the Waste Management (Environmental Levy Plastic Bag) Regulations of 2001.
It is also seeking declarations including that the 2001 regulations implementing the plastic bag levy are invalid and of no legal effect.
Mr Sreenan said Dunnes did not accept the November assessments as it contended the plastic bags in relation to which those assessments were made “were not subject to the levy”. The plastic bags in question were used in the company’s stores in Northern Ireland and also used for other purposes.

Couples court date for abduction of 8month old
A couple are due to appear in a court in Britain today charged with abducting an eight-month-old boy who was found in Carlow at the weekend.
The eight-month-old boy was taken from his home in Kirby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire on Thursday and was found left at the cathedral on Friday afternoon.
Police in north Wales arrested a couple in their 20s at around 11pm on Saturday.
It is believed that they handed themselves in at a police station after getting off a ferry from Dún Laoghaire to Holyhead.
They may be the child’s biological parents, though not his legal guardian, according to reports.
The baby boy was found by a woman on Friday afternoon who was visiting the church. Visitors reported hearing a couple crying in the porch of the church before the baby was abandoned.
Their British registration white Renault Clio car was later seen on CCTV leaving the cathedral area.
The child has since been in the care of the Health Service Executive and was not harmed by the incident.
The HSE is preparing to give the child back to its legal guardian this week.
Police on both sides of the Irish Sea have expressed concern for the welfare of not only the child, but the couple involved in the incident.

Proposed re-write on Article 42

The Oireachtas committee on children’s rights amendment has proposed a rewrite of article 42 of the Constitution, entitled Education. Rather than the addition of a paragraph to the article as was originally proposed by the Government , the committee is now proposing a new Article .
The committee has considered that a new Article 42, beginning with a new declaration on the rights of the child and going on to list rights including right to free primary education which is already referred to in that article, would be most likely to obtain broad support. Also to be included in the proposed amendment is to acknowledge and affirm “the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children” and provide that the children of married couples might be adopted, which is almost impossible under the present law
Paragraph 5 of Article 42 states that “in exceptional cases, where the parents for physical or moral reasons fail in their duty towards their children, the State . . . shall endeavour to supply the place of the parents.”
This paragraph will be rewritten to permit the adoption of children of married parents in certain circumstances, and will modify the threshold for State intervention to protect the rights and welfare of a child

Voluntary levy paid by 111 judges
Last May, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, announced that arrangements had been made with the Revenue Commissioners whereby judges could voluntarily pay a sum equivalent to the pension levy imposed on all public servants. Under the voluntary arrangement, judges were asked to pay 10 per cent of their income a year.
To date a total of 111 judges have now paid this voluntary pension levy, according to the Revenue Commissioners.

Voluntary payments totalling €698,000 have been made to Revenue from members of the judiciary. In addition, commitments via standing orders which amount to €522,000 per month have also been given.

Controversy arose last year after it was revealed that just 72 of the 142 judges in the State had paid the voluntary levy by the end of September.


The voluntary pension levy emerged as a solution to the situation when the Government said it could not impose the pension levy, applied to all public servants, on the judiciary because of the constitutional prohibition on reducing the remuneration of judges.

The Constitution states: “The remuneration of a judge shall not be reduced during his continuance in office.”


The voluntary contribution arrangement resulted from discussions between the Chief Justice and the chairwoman of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, which began shortly after the pension levy Act was passed and were concluded in April.

Judges’ salaries range from €295,000 for the Chief Justice to €147,000 for a District Court judge, with High Court judges earning €243,000 a year.

Free Legal Aid System to get Overhaul
An overhaul on existing legislation regarding Free legal aid is to be tackled this year. The overhaul is hoped to save over 15m which will be a significant slice of the now annual bill of nearly 60million. This is a bill which has spiralled since the year 2000 from €25m to €55million, expenditure on criminal legal aid is likely to total around €60million for 2009,an increase of about 9pc over the previous year,despite a cut of 8pc in professional fees.
Tenders will be sought for a test programme in two counties one of these probably being Cork. The successful solicitors would take the sole responsibility for the legal aid work in each county. These pilot test would confirm whether the predicted savings could be made with some justice officials predicting a saving of nearly 25pc.
Changes are also being made to the legislation to allow the introduction of compulsory means tests in cases where the prosecution objects to legal aid. And also to require people with some means to make a financial contribution towards their defence.
Other measures will require the solicitors for the defendant to produce the client’s PPS personal public service details. They will give power to the courts to withdraw a legal aid certificate in certain circumstances substantially increase the penalties for fraud if the basis for the application is found to be false, and restrict the power to grant additional lawyers to the trial court.
The large rise in the number of cases going through the courts in recent years has been attributed by officials to a more efficient processes and a rise in number of gardai and judges.
The number of legal aid certificates granted by the judiciary has rocketed from 30,000 in 2003 to 55,000 last year. But despite the overhaul of the existing legislation , it will remain the ultimate responsibility of the courts to determine eligibility for criminal legal aid, including cases where the charges are brought under new anti-gangland laws. Mr Ahern said. This is one financial area that needs to be tackled.

E-STAMPING
The Revenue Commissioners have issued guidelines to the introduction to their new e-stamping procedure on their website www.revenue.ie which will take effect from December 2009. The system will introduce a new procedure for stamping documents and paying stamp duty. The new arrangements will apply to every document that requires to be stamped. The main changes to be introduced are: A mandatory return for stamp duty setting out all relevant particulars and information required to calculate the duty and issue the stamp A new process for obtaining the stamp and a new format of stamp under the new arrangement practitioners will be required to complete a statutory return and submit it to the Revenue together with any payment due before an instrument will be stamped. The current ST21 form will no longer be required. The return will be filed through an electronic format on Revenue Online System (ROS) or in paper format. The Conveyancing Committee are hoping to arrange a demonstration of the new system at one of their upcoming seminars.