Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are not pressing the amendment. We are pressed for time now and I would love to be able to get to amendment No. 16. which proposes the reduction in the VAT rate from 13.5% to 9%.

I am not sure the Minister has the power to introduce a percentage support under the powers he announced. He would have the power to vary the rates but that would just be to bring it down from €151 to a lower level. A lot of people work just a couple of hours in employment. I know many of them who work in numerous jobs. The reality is that they will not get bumped up to €151. That cannot be done artificially, it must be done in the normal course of things.

I agree with a wide support for the economy currently. All I was doing in this amendment was what the temporary wage subsidy scheme did, that is, give the Minister the powers to vary the rates and the level of turnover for specific sectors. We used the same language that was signed off on by the Attorney General in previous legislation that has passed through both these Houses. Where there is a will, there is a way. It is a way if we need to, because we do not know where the economy will be in two or three weeks, never mind two or three months. It allows the flexibility for the Minister, upon a resolution of the Dáil, obviously, to vary rates for groups of workers.

That said, I am not pressing the amendment.

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