Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that. Going through the practicalities of this, an operator is established, and an operator is different from a retailer who will operate the scheme. An operator will provide services at different retail outlets, I assume. Correct me if I have misunderstood this. Let us say €5 million in deposits was paid for aluminium cans or plastic drink containers and €4 million of that was returned, so the operator has €1 million. Therefore, VAT would apply to the €1 million. That is fine. I understand that part of it. When do we determine that the €1 million is the amount that will not be returned? At any point in time, can you not rock up with your six cans of Harp or Tennent’s, put them back into the retail outlet and get the money back? When does that chargeable event happen?

On the fees the operator would pay to the retailer, I presume VAT would apply to all of them. I understand the operator would pay the retailer a fee for facilitating this.