Mr. Niall Cody:

I started talking about e-gambling and e-gaming because the invitation from the committee itemised VAT on e-gaming, Pillar Two rules, the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, and any other relevant matters. If the invitation had mentioned VRT, I certainly would have addressed it in my opening statement. I know that VRT is problematic and as the Deputy rightly says, the car market is hugely volatile at the moment. VRT is payable on the open market selling price. We refresh the open market selling price, having regard to market conditions.

I do not want to say in relation to any individual case because, obviously, I do not know it. I would definitely be interested in looking at it. I know there are problems with certificates of conformity and I know there is a problem sourcing documentation from the UK.

On the system for post-clearance checks, we operate customs controls at the point of entry and we operate post-clearance controls, which are essentially a form of audit where somebody declares paperwork and we subsequently check it, as we do for all the taxes. In some of those circumstances, it turned out that the documentation that is being produced was not correct. We do not have the details at the time. It is like any self-assessment system. We have not confirmed at import that that is the correct documentation. When we do a post-clearance check, we look for documentation. If it turns out that the documentation does not reflect what the case actually is, that is the first time we know about it. That can – and I know it has – give rise to difficulties for some dealers. That is the nature of any audit-type system. People paid their tax or duty on a basis, their business runs on that and it turns out that subsequently there is a liability.

There were significant challenges, particularly in the first six months post Brexit on cars. We know there were arrangements in certain cases where it was clear that people did not know what they were doing. Sometimes, in some cases, we were not 100% certain on some aspects of it ourselves. As the Deputy recalls, the final agreement was a couple of days before Christmas and it was coming into effect on 1 January.

I am willing to look at any details. VRT is an area in which I am very interested. VRT was introduced in 1993 with the Single Market. The technology and the system also has to be in accordance with EU rules and based on registration. It was never visualised that our biggest source of secondhand cars would not be in the EU. That has complicated issues as well. The bulk of money we collect in VRT comes in automatically from the new car system. It is one of those taxes that 90% of the work on VRT is for 10% of the money. We are used to doing everything the other way around. We want most of the money without any work on trying to get stuff out of it. We want it to be as seamless as possible. Certainly, we have no interest in making it difficult for legitimate businesses.

Unfortunately, in the sector we have seen some claims being made that people did not know or they have lost money on this. It was very clear that some businesses were using the system to get a competitive advantage and were taking shortcuts. That is a challenge in all sectors, but there is definitely some element of it in the secondhand car market and we have to balance that.

If the Deputy wants to provide me with any specific details, we will look into them. I think that it would be worthwhile. We would want to talk even to the Department of Transport because there is the licensing and the registration.

On whole car sector, back when we became the registration authority in 1993, it was a fairly straightforward concept of registering cars. We now have environmental conditionality around registration. In some ways, there needs to look at who is the registration authority. There is no problem with us being the registration authority because we have the technology to do it, but there are issues around environmental standards that we are not qualified to address fully. That is an area that there could be some significant work done. We have had some initial, very tentative discussions – they probably will not appreciate me saying this – with the Department of Transport. I would be interested in that.

On e-gaming, the 1931 Act deals with gambling and the 1956 Act deals with gaming. The 1931 Act and the changes that happened around 2019 around remote bookmakers all deals with licences for gambling. Any of those companies that the Deputy talked about is licensed for gambling. There is no licensing system for gaming. The 1956 Act essentially dealt with gaming machines and things such as roulette machines, one-arm bandits and the like. Clearly, there was no idea that there was going to be e-gaming, so e-gaming is not regulated. A lot of e-gaming comes into Ireland from other member states where gaming and e-gaming are regulated. There was a discussion at the Committee of Public Accounts last week about whether it is illegal. I am not competent to say whether it is illegal or not - I know it is not regulated. However, it is legal and regulated in some member states. Under EU law, VAT is charged for the sake of fiscal neutrality and the like. That has been the subject of European Court of Justice, ECJ, cases. It is all handled through that one-stop shop. We get a portion of the receipts from e-casinos in other member states in respect of Irish players.