Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

In view of the fact that a national conference centre would encourage approximately 30,000 extra tourists to come here, with a spin-off of about €50 million, such a facility is very important. On a related issue, business tourists who visit other countries in Europe can reclaim VAT. As we will shortly debate the Finance Bill, I ask the Minister to make personal representations to the Minister for Finance to allow business tourists who come here for conferences and so on reclaim VAT. These two issues are connected — a conference centre and the reclaiming of VAT by business tourists to encourage more business tourism in the country.

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