Mr. Eoin O'Sullivan:

The impact of the VAT at the moment is that service providers - counsellors or psychotherapists - are reluctant to go over the €37,500 revenue threshold. That is not a profit threshold, so you have to take your insurance, rent, light and heat - all your expenses - out of that €37,500. Once you go one euro over that, you are liable for 13.5% tax on everything, so it does not make sense for individual counsellors or psychotherapists to go over that threshold and they are therefore limiting the services they offer. If that restriction is taken away, it is more likely that those counsellors and psychotherapists will be comfortable in offering more services. There is therefore a dual benefit: the cost of services to the service users is reduced, and the provision of more desperately needed services is encouraged.