Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to get a loan of Senator O'Reilly's crystal ball at some point.

Moving on to more serious issues, I welcome all our guests and thank all those who have contributed to the meeting. A theme that came across in all the contributions was the mayhem, if I can use that word, that took place at the outset of all this whereby many businesses, for understandable reasons, were not fully up to speed on what had to be done in regard to paperwork and so on. I can only imagine how it must have been for everyone involved. Now that we are down the road a little bit, are our guests happy that all businesses are up to speed on what needs to be done and what hurdles need to be jumped, or is there more to be done?

If more needs to be done, perhaps the witnesses might outline what that is in order that we may include their recommendations in the report we will be compiling at the end of this process.

Following on from Ms O'Neill's response to Senators McDowell and Joe O'Reilly regarding the VAT element, some businesses are going to have a cash flow problem because they have been closed due to Covid. I ask Ms O'Neill to send on the information she relayed to the committee about VAT. I apologise in advance for asking this but could she go over that again? For example, if a business was importing goods from the UK, cash flow for the payment of VAT might be a bit of a problem for it. Perhaps, as well as going over it again, she could also email us the relevant information as to what avenues are potentially open to that customer going forward.