Ms Heather Graham:

Mr. Copeland will tell you it has been a bugbear of ours for years. It is a very simple transaction. One can take an invoice from, say, Maurice Graham Limited, head across the Border and buy something up there such as a tractor or a piece of machinery. My VAT number is on the bottom of our invoice. It can be checked on the europa.eu website to check that it is a valid VAT number. If that business across the Border is willing to take the VAT number, the transaction is VAT exempt, but it is on my VAT number. It happens both ways. We have met with the Revenue Commissioners over this in the past so they are aware of the problem. We are taking on all the extra taxes to get the country back on line again, and this use of VAT numbers both ways creates a huge loss to the Exchequer.