John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I echo the comments of my colleagues to my right. I come from Waterford and Waterford Crystal is a large international company in our city, with a long track record of attracting significant numbers of international tourists. It is rightly concerned about the threshold set here. I support Senator Chambers's call to pause this proposal. I believe the proposed compromise of a €50 threshold, which would remove 40% of transactions and only 8% of sales is reasonable and should be given due consideration by the Department. I echo the last-minute calls on the floor of the Seanad for the Minister of State to reconsider this. I believe it will have a considerable impact on the sector which is already decimated.