Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

I add my voice in support of the Irish charities, with their proposals on lowering the threshold to €100 and also some type of compensation fund scheme to reimburse a portion of the fundraising that has been lost to VAT. The latter is something I remember raising in the Seanad. It is not right that people who raise money to buy a piece of equipment for a hospital then must pay VAT on it, and the State benefits from the fundraising drive. In reality, perhaps the State should have been doing it in the first place.

What would be the loss to the Exchequer - the Minister may not have the figures with him but he could present them at a later stage - if the threshold was reduced from €250 to €100, and if the VAT was foregone in the case of fundraising efforts?

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