Hotel boss warns mayor's tourist tax plan 'will make Limerick less attractive'

MAYOR John Moran has defended his proposal to bring in a local tourist tax saying: “We cannot fix or run Limerick without having revenue.”

And he says he may bring a paper to the local authority’s economic policy committee to have a debate on the measure.

The executive mayor has sought the Government’s blessing to introduce a small charge on people who pay to stay in the city.

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These taxes are common in many major cities across the world, with a hotel, hostel or other accommodation provider collecting the money from their customers.

But Dermot Kelly of the Irish Hotels Federation’s Shannon branch, and commercial director at the Great National South Court Hotel in Raheen has warned it could lead to people passing Limerick by when visiting Ireland.

“It’s going to make Limerick less attractive,” he said.

Mayor Moran stressed it is “premature” to talk about taxation on tourists.

“Nobody likes paying taxes. The proper debate is, what would we use the money for, how much would we raise? What rate would we apply? All of this is for the future,” he told Limerick Live.

The first citizen does not believe adding a small charge to hotel stays will deter tourists from visiting the city.

“If it’s 50c to €1, less than a price of a cup of coffee, do I really think it would stop me going to a city? Not at all. I know I’d understand when I do that, it would help me to pay for facilities when I see museums and other amenities to make my time enjoyable when I do visit,” Mayor Moran added.

Any tax is seen as a “negative,” he admitted.

“But we can’t fix or run Limerick without having revenue. It’s a case of fairly spreading revenue. We could increase the Local Property Tax, we could increase rates, we could increase some of the charges we have for development. Every one of these has a negative impact, but it also raises funds which is really positive.”

Mr Kelly says the hotels industry in Limerick and across Ireland already make a significant contribution to the exchequer.

“We pay very high levels of commercial rates and levies to fund local authority services. Twenty-nine cent of every euro spent is in taxes. That’s akin to €3bn in taxes for Government each year. We are already seeing a lot of food inflation. We are seeing a lot of cost increases, and we don’t need this one as well,” Mr Kelly said.

“Tourists will be looking at other destinations, or maybe trying to stay outside of Limerick. Tourism generates €10bn annually for the economy. It’s one of the largest indigenous employers in the State,” the hotel boss pointed out.

Mr Kelly also believes an additional tax would be unfair on city centre hotels, which often need to factor the cost of car parking into the nightly rate for guests.

The issue has arisen after Mayor Moran wrote to Enterprise Minister Peter Burke asking Government to consider the measure.

Off the back of this, four Fine Gael metropolitan district councillors issued a statement in opposition to the plan.