Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I condemn in the strongest possible way what happened in Northern Ireland last night. We have to condemn it at every available opportunity to us. I welcome the €1.2 billion cost-of-living package provided by the Government. I ask the Deputy Leader if we might organise a debate on the VAT rates in the House. I welcome the continuing 9% rate for the next number of months but inevitably, it is going to go back up to 13.5%. This will be a blow to small businesses when that occurs, particularly to small restaurants, bars and people providing food. We need a debate on that because when this happens, it will be a big blow for those small businesses. There may be other ways in which they can be helped. This issue warrants a debate before the summer and I hope the Deputy Leader will be able to arrange that at some stage.