The Minister for Finance was asked in the Dail on Tuesday, 6 February if consideration has been given to the impact on domestic law that may arise from the EU consolidated VAT Directive 2006/112/EC.

There is always concern when legislation is recast or consolidated that changes may inadvertently be made to existing legislative provisions.

The Minister's reply is reproduced below.

• “I should explain that Directive 2006/112/EC is a recast of the EU VAT Directives which replaces and repeals the First VAT Directive and the Sixth VAT Directive. There are no substantive changes to Irish VAT law arising from the recast of these EU VAT Directives, as the objective of the recast is to provide a single simplified legislative base.
  In this regard, I made Regulations last December entitled “European Communities (Value-Added Tax) Regulations 2006” (S.I. No 663 of 2006) to provide for the transposition into domestic VAT law of Directive 2006/112/EC which came into force on 1 January 2007. The Regulations created the necessary legal mechanism to update the references to the Sixth Directive which were used in the domestic law. In the Finance Bill 2007, I published the comprehensive set of details of every reference in the VAT Act which is affected by the new Directive, with the appropriate amendments required. These are in Schedule 2 to the Finance Bill as initiated. When the Finance Bill is enacted, it will replace and revoke the Regulations in S.I. No 663 of 2006.”