Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the same issue raised by Senator Byrne. She made the point quite well. We had a submission this morning from Retail Excellence Ireland on VAT. Irish retailers operate 45,000 business nationwide, employing 300,000 people directly in retail. That is the largest private industry employer in the country. As a consequence, €4 billion of VAT and €1.7 billion of PAYE payments are made to the Exchequer annually. Those are quite large figures in the context of our budget. The current UK VAT rate is 20%, which means there is a differential of 3% between that and the current Irish rate. This is an extreme impediment to business. I call on the Minister to immediately react by reducing our VAT rate to 20%, and not to do so gradually. Irish businesses need to know, particularly now that Brexit is at the door, that they are at least on an even footing.

I ask the Acting Leader to pass on the message to the Minister. It is something he should address immediately. Retailers have had a hard time, as we are all aware, although the ship has steadied over the last while. I would certainly appreciate it were the Acting Leader to discuss this with the Minister and I call for a debate on the matter in this House.