Sir, – Reading John FitzGerald’s article “No end to Ireland’s love affair with the banana” (Business This Week, August 16th), I recall that the humble banana was the subject of a major Irish tax case in the 1980s. It was claimed that artificially ripening bananas was a manufacturing process and thus qualified for the special tax rate of 10 per cent then available to manufacturing companies. This was straining the definition of manufacturing and the Revenue Commissioners would not accept the claim, but the matter was eventually settled against the Revenue by the Supreme Court in 1986. The law was later amended to exclude such contrived definitions of manufacturing.
The matter was again considered by the Supreme Court in 2000. On that occasion, having regard to the amending legislation, the court held that banana ripening was not a manufacturing process capable of attracting tax relief (Business, July 25th, 2000).
Common sense had prevailed. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN,
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Dublin 18.
Sir, – I enjoyed John FitzGerald’s meander through the journey of bananas in Ireland and the supply and demand impact on their prices on our economy. I assume that he is not unaware of the old adage that “There’s many a slip ‘twixt up and the dip” in matters economic. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK JUDGE,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
