Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not delay the House too long. I have said nearly everything I could say at this stage. I again express my disappointment that the Government is not willing to accept any amendments, even those from its partners in the Government. I know the Minister of State referred to the fact that no amendment relating to the collective spend was tabled, but I think the result would have been the same even if an amendment had been tabled on the collective spend. The Minister of State came back in on the issue of the €9 and put it on the record that this is not about €9. It is much bigger than €9. The €9 relates to a figure of €75. I could question whether these tax-back companies take a full 50% of this figure. This is about people spending €500 or €600 and getting a percentage of it back. I do not want the impression to go out from this Chamber that we are arguing about €9. It is much bigger than €9.

Senator Warfield has addressed the issue. It is about the simple message to which I referred earlier, that is, that this country offered tax free shopping. That message is now gone. A system that has worked very effectively for our overseas visitors for the past 35 years will now be amended in a negative way. The Minister of State has put forward the positives in terms of the UK and I agree with that but I think we could have got more out of it than what we have at the moment. I think the sos has taken the energy out of me, thank God. I do think this section is a retrograde step.

I disagree with the Minister of State about the review. A review could be held in a year's time. At that stage we would be able to identify what our sales were and what our VAT rebates were. It is wrong to say that we would get no information. We would actually have accurate information on how to propose a scheme based on the figures, rather than introducing a scheme in the unknown as is being done. If we left it for a year, we would know the potential impact on our revenues of visitors from the UK shopping in Ireland and, equally, the impact of that spend in our communities and the multiplier effect that would have in our communities at the end of that year. It is wrong to indicate that we cannot have a review. We can have a review and that review could give us a significant amount of detailed and accurate information about a more targeted and accurate scheme that we could bring in.

I agree that we did not cause Brexit but it is our choice as a Government to bring in this legislation. We are not being forced to bring it in. It is the choice of the Government to bring in the Bill and, as such, it should not hide behind Brexit. We do not have to do this. The Minister of State knows that and so do I. He should not use the excuse of Brexit because we have an option to scrap the scheme if we so wish. That is our choice as a Government.