Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I guess it does, but the concerns still remain. What I am most concerned with in the statement is the line that states "VAT incurred for other purposes, such as on the acquisition of equipment or machinery, does not come within the scope of the refund order." There were certain items of equipment, like what I mentioned earlier, such as meal bins and bulk tanks, that are not necessarily moveable as such. Bulk tanks will, for example, remain a permanent fixture on the farm. The concern is that they do not come within the scope of the refund order. Again, this will cause concern right throughout the farming sector. Registering for VAT is not as straightforward as you might think. All farmers will have their books balanced. They all do their accounts, do their profit and loss and have their books balanced and everything is above board. Registering for VAT, as well as the procedure they have to go through to do that, takes on significant extra costs when considering the accountancy and what is required there. We cannot, all of a sudden, require farmers to go through that process.

There is another factor here as well. Ireland has a healthy ag-tech sector. There are many people who are employed in the ag-tech sector. They make the equipment I just outlined, such as bulk tanks, meal bins, automatic calf feeders and automatic scrapers. These jobs are now in jeopardy as well because it throws the whole thing up in the air. There is so much uncertainty. Again, I reiterate my call. This has to be reviewed and looked at. There are so many farmers who are so far down the line and this has come at them. Even if those farmers who are already in the system and have gone about making these changes were to be looked at, it would be some bit of relief.

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