Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Cummins and his colleagues. I represent Galway West, which includes Galway city, Connemara, the Aran Islands, Inishbofin and other offshore islands. The latter are all very much reliant on and have benefited from the tourism industry. They also benefited from the reduction in VAT. There is no doubt that the latter has worked, particularly as the numbers coming here from abroad have increased. I support the retention of the reduction and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, is on record as indicating his support for it. Heretofore, we would have been given a figure of €360 million in respect of this matter whereas the report with which we have been presented refers to a sum of €90 million. I do not know for how long the report has been available but I only saw it today. There is a pretty big difference between €90 million and €360 million. I will be obliged to examine this matter closely in order to identify the origin of that difference.

As Deputy Calleary indicated, the original jobs initiative involved a levy on private pensions. In order to retain that source of funding, said levy would also have to be retained. The issue of private pensions is one which gives rise to its own concerns. Obviously, this debate will be ongoing for some time but I firmly believe that the VAT reduction has had a very positive impact and I support its retention. We have expressed that sentiment to the Minister. We look forward to pursuing the issue relating to chefs with officials from the Department at one of our forthcoming meetings.