Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I can deal only with the matters before us. If there are other matters for debate they should be raised with the Minister and obviously the next stage of the Bill would be the appropriate time to do that.

As regards the specific question from the Leader of the Opposition, there is no section of the Finance Bill, as published, relating to VAT. Three ministerial amendments relating to one item on VAT are now being introduced. This requires a new Part 3 on VAT to be introduced between sections 18 and 19 of the Bill as published. The part on VAT normally follows that on excise in the Finance Acts. The amendments relate to a VAT on property anti-avoidance provisions and insert a new part into the Finance Bill containing three sections. These form a package of measures which amend sections 7 and 7B of the VAT Act to close off a loophole in the VAT on property legislation, which has been used to avoid paying VAT in certain circumstances. The avoidance mechanism relied on misinterpreting a particular provision in the VAT Act, which was designed to prevent double taxation.

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