Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I add our support for the amendment. We need to see substantial progress. Work has been done outside the Government on examining the issue. On Committee Stage, I said I was raising it when I was elected to the Seanad in 2007, and we are still raising it. This week I was contacted by a local Donegal charity which is doing great work transporting cancer patients to Galway. When the charity had to purchase a new vehicle, it paid VAT. Charitable fund-raising events take place in my parish and other parishes around the State for such organisations. It is not right that some of it is going into the coffers of the Exchequer. It could be argued that the State should be providing these services in the first place. It is bad enough that these charities are stepping into the breach; the State also charges them for it.

It is not an unlimited reimbursement. It is a measured and affordable step, and the Government must commission a report in time to allow the Committee on Budgetary Oversight to scrutinise it and make a recommendation before the 2018 budget and finance Bill. I hope the Government indicates that we are on this trajectory and that next year's finance Bill will have something substantial on the issue.

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