Éamon Ó Cuív criticised a bill provision raising the VAT refund minimum to purchases over €175 for non-EU tourists and warned it would harm craft shops and tourism-dependent areas. He urged the minister to adopt a more tourist-friendly approach and called for more tourist goods to be produced on the island.
VAT refunds and tourist purchases
He argued the €175 single-purchase threshold would disadvantage craft shops where tourists make multiple smaller purchases, risking jobs in areas dependent on tourism. He acknowledged safeguards in the bill to prevent abuse from neighbouring islands but said the rule should be more tourist-friendly and hoped for better news before the bill proceeds.
Northern Ireland and scheme access
He noted that although Britain and the Isle of Man will be outside the EU, the bill contains provisions treating Northern Ireland as being in the EU for this scheme, meaning visitors cannot use a shortcut through Northern Ireland to claim refunds. He stressed that only visitors who leave the island again would qualify for the rebate.
Brexit, timing and political reflections
He reflected that more respect should have been shown for the British referendum result earlier and said time was lost attempting to reverse that choice. He called for flexibility and goodwill to reach an agreement and observed that media attention to Brexit has diminished compared with earlier coverage.
Economic consequences and potential advantages for Northern Ireland
He suggested a hard Brexit could put Northern Ireland in an advantageous position as the only sterling area in the single market, allowing goods produced there to be sold tariff-free to both Britain and the rest of Europe. He warned this could encourage companies to set up in border areas, increasing cross-border economic shifts.
Fishing as a symbolic issue
He warned that fishing would be a very contentious, symbolic issue linked to sovereignty, and noted that the richest waters around Britain are on the north-east coast rather than the west - an observation he connected to political voting patterns in those constituencies.
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First of all, I would like to go to something very specific in the bill. This relates to a provision in the bill that says that you would have to purchase more than the value of €175, if you were a tourist here from a non-EU country, to get the VAT rebate. Now this has been an incredibly important scheme, particularly to craft shops and other businesses right around the country, but I have to say, particularly in those areas of the country where a high part or proportion of the economy is based on tourism, there are a lot of jobs involved and all of the craft shop owners will tell you that most of the purchases, there might be multiple purchases in one shop, they might spend quite a bit of money, but the individual purchases would not come to €175. Now I do recognise, like everybody else, that the island of Britain joining its neighbouring island, the Isle of Man, outside the European Union, it is going to change the world quite dramatically, but I understand that there are good safeguards in the bill already to ensure that this process is not abused from people from our neighbouring island and that the provision, even though technically speaking, the north of Ireland is going to be outside the European Union, in lots of other ways it's going to be in it and in this case that it's going to be considered to be in the European Union and therefore you will not be able to come in from the north of Ireland, buy your goods, claim to that and go out. I hope, Minister, that we get good news on this before this bill goes through the oil and that we see a more tourist friendly approach to it. I think we also have to recognise that all the goods bought under this scheme are made in the country and we would much prefer that a lot more of them were made in the country and produced in the country and I think we have to look at trying to make sure that more and more of our tourist product is actually produced within the island of Ireland. I think that when we look at it in the round, we are going over the top here to achieve something that might not happen in the way I think people would fear. The only people who would be able from Britain would be people who came in here and would have to leave the island again. As I said, there is no shortcut through Northern Ireland on this scheme. It is amazing to me watching the television these days because when Brexit was not happening, day and night, all we got on the television was Brexit. When we were really very far away as was shown subsequently from the line. If you looked at RT News now, there was a whole section devoted to Brexit issues and now we are coming up to the real wall. It does not seem to be worrying certainly the media as much as one would have thought. I have to say that I hope that an agreement will be reached. It is going to take flexibility and goodwill on all sides. I think it is a pity that Europe did not recognise earlier that whether Europe agreed with it or not, or whether we liked it in this island or not, the British people had had a referendum and they had made their choice. We should have all respected that from the beginning, but it seemed that a lot of people spent a lot of time trying to tell them that they made the wrong decision and that it was all a big mistake and they were badly informed or whatever. And last Christmas whether we like it or not, they reaffirmed that decision by putting the Conservatives very strongly back into government on get Brexit done, take it. I think we have lost time when we could have been working out the modalities of this, trying to persuade them that they made a big mistake. And as I said, I think we should have recognised their sovereignty in this issue on the island of Britain. Now I do recognise, of course, that because of the events that happened a hundred years ago, they came back to haunt us, it is having a very, very unforeseen difficulty on this island. And the way I summed up that difficulty from the beginning was that you could not accept a border on the island, but you could accept the sensitivity of the unionist, pro-Brexit population who are in the minority as it happened, but a large minority, that putting a border in the IRC would send wrong political signals to them. Again, it is water under the bridge now, but it took a long time to sort that one. Peculiarly enough, maybe by accident more than design, if we do get a hard Brexit, Northern Ireland in my view is going to find itself in a very advantageous situation. Actually, a better situation than the south, because they are going to be the only sterling area in the single market. On the other hand, all the widgets that they produce in Northern Ireland, if I understand rightly, they might have to go through paperwork, but can be sold through the south into the whole of Europe without any customs or tariffs, and no paperwork going that way, and if they go into the island of Britain, they still also can sell in there, so they are going to be the only part of the European Union that can sell both to Britain and to the rest of Europe with no tariffs. Of course, we could find, particularly around the border areas, a migration of companies setting up in Northern Ireland because of that advantage. All the more reason that it is important for this island that actually we do get an agreement. Now, I would like to say a few words about fishing. I have always maintained that fishing was going to be a very contentious issue. I looked at British politics and I said to myself, things like fishing are very, very symbolic, symbolic of sovereignty, but one other conundrum that I haven't heard debated so much is where are the waters, the richest waters around the island of Britain. In England it is on the north east coast, not on the west coast of England, because they have a clear run for 200 miles towards Norway. It is interesting to note that those were constituencies that the Conservative Party did well in. Not that many of them are fishermen in those areas, but it is symbolically important to them, but much more importantly is north of them. Scotland is surrounded on three sides and more than three sides by water. And, furthermore, the water extends well out and well north because you have got the Shetlands and the Orkneys to the north of Scotland and you have got the Isles to the west, well west of Scotland. So they have enormous wealth in Scotland on the fisheries and we know that inevitably there will be a new referendum and we know the last referendum was won by the pro-union side by 5%. Now, if you wanted to maintain your margin and your Boris Johnson, you will want to be able to say to Nicola Sturgeon, look, go with independence, you go back to the European Union and you give all the fisheries back again. Stay with me and I will defend all your fisheries. We will hold them for Britain. And for that reason I believe Britain will hang tough and I always have believed on the fisheries issue. Maybe I am wrong. And therefore, I think no matter what comes out of these negotiations, I think that it could have very, very serious consequences for Irish fisheries. But I never want to look at things that have been half empty. I would rather look at them half full. I think it is time that we said in Europe that the whole fishery regime stinks. We sold ourselves short, there was a Fionnified government, I hate to say, from the very beginning in Europe in relation to our water resources, our fish resources. We have 14% of the fish and 4% of the quota. Furthermore, we have allowed people up very near the coast, six miles as the sovereign amount that we control. My belief is that the coastal communities where most of the fishermen work in coastal fishing, 80% of the fishermen, 90% of the fish is caught by the big operators, the big industrial operators, but 80% of the fishermen are in small boats. Therefore, I think there is a case to be made at the European level that all of the coastal nations would get a much bigger slice of the coastal water for their coastal fishermen and that the big industrial interests would have to yield way to much more localised interests that benefit the local economy. There are many other things I could say about this issue. As I said, though, in the beginning, there are a few weeks there. An arbitrary deadline should not be sent. We should keep talking and talking until we get to a place of agreement. I would finally have to express a view that it does seriously worry me in the final hot hours of these negotiations that we are not going to be at the table. It is very hard to expect anybody to represent your interests as you could, when the big industrial interests of France and Germany are at stake. I would be a little bit afraid, I have to say, that we might be let down. I have always had that fear. All I could think of when I listened to previous speakers, we have had a history in this country of always believing that our salvation would come from abroad. At any time that anybody talks in those terms that were going to be saved by Europe or America or by somebody else. I always think of the song from way back when, Tal na Fráncíach Tcháchtársálíár sán Cánbán bóchth. And I think of people who then decided that the destiny of Ireland should be taken into the hands of the people of Ireland. Not that they would not be internationalists, not that they would not play their part as one of the nations of the world, but they would do so in a sovereign way and make sure they were at the table. I accept I am probably in a minority of one or two very small numbers that believe that, but I have that deep worry and I hope sincerely I am wrong.
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