Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

This new imposition on consumers is serious. The Government should be encouraging them to spend locally to support local economies. There is a grave danger that large volumes of trade will be lost to this jurisdiction. Traders and shopping centres in the Six Counties have already ratcheted up their advertising and promotion campaigns. As a representative of two Ulster counties, I want to state clearly traders in southern Border area are concerned about the threat to their businesses presented by this tax measure. They have invested heavily in developing new facilities in recent years and cannot afford to have their trade diminished further.

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