Mr. Niall Cody:

We conducted a study of the pricing mechanism. The EU VAT rules provide that one can have a flat rate scheme to compensate unregistered farmers for their VAT inputs.

One of the conditions laid down in the VAT directives is that the sector cannot overcompensate.

What we did is we did a study and then the Minister for Finance brought in a provision in the Finance Act - it might be two years ago - to provide a mechanism to exclude a sector or a subsector of the unregistered farmers sector from the flat-rate edition, subject to an analysis by Revenue and the establishment of the fact that there was overcompensation. That provision was brought in and-----