Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I wish to speak about the amount of people who are forced to go shopping in the North and the amount of revenue we are losing as a result. Senator Boyle has spoken about the budget on 9 December, and I call on the Leader to convey to the Minister for Finance that we must have decreases in VAT in order to encourage people to stay at home. There are 250,000 households who are shopping in the North of Ireland. Massive amounts of revenue are being lost to this State. I have raised this issue consistently in the past, and I call on the Leader to ask the Minister for Finance to reduce VAT so people can shop at home.

I also asked the Leader about the meeting between the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, and the Leader told me he would personally come back to me last week.