Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is a very good point and it has been brought to my attention previously. It was raised by both Deputy McConalogue and you, Chairman, and Deputy Jonathan O’Brien also raised it. There was a time in the mid-1980s when the then Labour-Fine Gael coalition fell out of favour with Croke Park because we could not remove VAT from hurley sticks and Ministers were effectively banned from attending games there as a result. One will be pleased to hear that VAT is still on hurley sticks and notwithstanding the ostracisation that occurred we are still allowed to go to Croke Park. It was a long difficult journey to reconcile the different VAT regimes of 12 member states, or even nine of them. One got a chance to put VAT on goods but the decision could not then be altered. On foot of the issue being raised, I am prepared to explore the possibility of having the matter raised at Council level. There will be a price distortion in the marketplace if there is VAT on one component of what is in effect the same product but there is not on the other. I do not know the VAT rate on books. It might be 23%.