Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I will address the issue of fishing. While I have the Minister's ear, I will raise one other issue. Is he aware that a number of serious allegations have been made about VAT fraud, insurance fraud, illegal state aid, environmental fraud and corruption in the poultry industry? Alo Mohan from County Cavan has stated that his business, which had a turnover of about €2 million, has been put out of business due to his refusal to participate in what he calls an illegal VAT practice. He claims that Revenue is aware of the practice and that it is costing the State millions of euro in tax forgone. He claims that he and others were told to deregister for VAT by a food processor and to start operating under a flat-rate VAT system. He claims that he was to pay higher than the market rate for feed while at the same time he would get a higher price for the chickens that he has sold. This issue made it onto the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs in 2016 and the Minister for Finance at the time, Michael Noonan, admitted, "VAT avoidance schemes were being developed and probably [were] in place, particularly in the poultry sector". He went on to state that he was going to introduce measures in the Finance Bill to address "tax evasion in the poultry industry that gave competitive advantage to those who used it rather than those who didn't".

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