Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendments to the Brexit omnibus Bill are set to introduce a new threshold of €75 to all non-EU passengers who avail of the VAT retail export scheme, enabling travellers outside of the EU to benefit from VAT relief from goods purchased in the State and brought outside the EU. This proposal will in effect move the threshold from a de facto minimisamount of 1 cent to €75. In County Waterford bus tours and cruise visitors avail of this VAT rebate when purchasing Waterford Crystal, woollen crafts and traditional gifts and mementos. This tax change will affect a significant number of retail businesses and geographic areas. For Waterford Crystal, it will remove nearly 60% of all US customer sales and will have a similar effect across the south and west coasts. This is being done to try to solve a problem with UK visitors. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this measure to see if some other form of enforcement can get us over this problem?

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