5.—(1) Where income tax falls due for collection pursuant to F10[Chapter 4 of Part 42] of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, in respect of an employed contributor, other than a special contributor, any levy payable in respect of the contributor by his or her employer shall be paid by the employer to the Collector-General.

(2) Where the employed contributor is a special contributor, any levy payable in respect of the contributor by his or her employer shall be paid by the employer to the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs.

(3) All amounts paid to the Collector-General in respect of levy shall be paid by him or her into the Social Insurance Fund.

(4) All amounts paid to the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs in respect of levy shall be paid by him or her into the Social Insurance Fund.

(5) The Act of 1993 is amended by the insertion after section 6A of the following section:

“6B.—The Minister shall make payments out of the Social Insurance Fund into the National Training Fund equalling those paid into the first-mentioned fund pursuant to subsections (3) and (4) of section 5 of the National Training Fund Act, 2000.”.

F11[(6) The provisions of any enactment, regulation or rule of court relating to the inspection of records, the estimation, collection and recovery (including the provisions relating to the offset of taxes and appropriation of payments in Chapter 5 of Part 42 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997) of income tax, or relating to appeals in relation to income tax, or the publication of names of persons under section 1086 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, shall apply in relation to the National Training Fund Levy which the Collector-General is obliged to collect as if the said levy were an amount of income tax which the employer was liable to remit.]

(7) In proceedings instituted by virtue of this Act, a certificate purporting to be signed by or on behalf of, in the case of moneys due pursuant to subsection (1), the Collector-General or, in the case of moneys due pursuant to subsection (2), the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, which states that a specified amount is due and payable by the defendant in respect of levy shall be evidence, until the contrary is proved, that the amount is so due and payable in respect of levy and the certificate shall be deemed, until the contrary is proved, to have been signed by or on behalf of the Collector-General or the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, as appropriate.

(8) For the purposes of this section the rules of court concerned for the time being applicable to civil proceedings shall apply to proceedings by virtue of this section.

(9) There shall be included among the debts which, under section 285 of the Companies Act, 1963, are, in the distribution of the assets of a company being wound up, to be paid in priority to all other debts, levy payable pursuant to section 3 by the company during the 12 months before the relevant date (being the relevant date within the meaning of the said section 285), and that Act shall have effect accordingly and formal proof of the debts to which the priority is given under this provision shall not be required except in cases where it may otherwise be provided for by rules made under that Act.

(10) Subsection (9) shall not apply where a company is wound up voluntarily merely for the purposes of reconstruction or of amalgamation with another company.

(11) There shall be included among the debts which, under section 81 of the Bankruptcy Act, 1988, are, in the distribution of the property of a bankrupt to be paid, subject to section 119 of that Act, in priority to all other debts, all levy payable pursuant to section 3 by the bankrupt during the period 12 months before the date of the order of adjudication, and that Act shall have effect accordingly, and formal proof of the debts to which priority is given under this subsection shall comply with the provisions of the First Schedule to that Act and any rules of court relating to proof of debt.

(12) Subsection (11) shall be construed so as to apply to an arranging debtor in the same manner as it applies to a bankrupt and, accordingly, the reference in that subsection to the period of 12 months before the date of the order of adjudication shall be construed as a reference to the period of 12 months before the date of the presenting of the petition for protection.