Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I will have no problem in doing that. On the one hand I welcome the recognition given by the Government to the fact that there has been a major problem of cross-Border shopping of which alcohol has been one of its main components. However, this could have been done in a much fairer and even-handed way by dealing with the VAT section of it which would have dealt with many areas, other than just alcohol. As other speakers have said we are living in very difficult times with many people turning to alcohol. I attended a number of funerals in the last few days of people who were openly advised that alcohol would end their lives. It is sad that in one week I came across four similar cases of people aged in their early 30s to the mid 50s. We must have a serious look at this issue. VAT and sterling have been the cause of much cross-Border shopping and cross-Border involvement and that is area that should have been tackled.

A reduction in VAT from 13% to 10% would have been a major boost to the whole tourism industry and would have been a much better way to go. I too could deal with all the other areas where there have been reductions such as the blind, the handicapped and the carers but I will leave them for another time.

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