Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am in complete agreement with everything that has been said about the amendment. It was tabled by my colleague, Deputy Munster, who felt strongly, like a number of the other speakers, that now is not the time, under the guise of Brexit legislation, to hammer the tourism industry. As has been noted by many other Deputies, we are going through a brutal pandemic. There have been attempts by the Government, and proposals from the other side of the House, to provide necessary sectoral supports and actions, and tourism is one area where people have been absolutely hammered. It does not make sense, therefore, in any way, shape or form to remove the retail export scheme and the VAT refund, which makes a significant difference to people. People who sell arts and crafts were mentioned earlier, and the scheme also helps other small sales within the tourism sector.

I agree with others that if a consideration needs to be made in respect of this, it should be taken away from Brexit legislation and dealt with separately. It does not make sense at this time to further hammer this sector. I do not need to add to the figures that have been outlined. The €175 limit does not make sense, and nor does the Government amendment to reduce it to €75, which I assume arose due to the number of people who had commented or tabled amendments on the issue. We need a sensible solution to this. As Deputy Brady noted, we need as much consensus as possible on dealing with the problem of Brexit and to remove this impediment to the tourism sector, which is being crippled.

I add my voice to all the others and reiterate that this point is a very important one for Deputy Munster, which is why she tabled the amendment. The Government has a very simple ask in front of it and has just to carry it out. It is as simple as that.

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