Hospitality sector needs urgent help
They are being hit by a wave of extra costs
Deputy Marian Harkin has called on the Government to urgently bring forward a suite of measures to support the hard-hit hospitality sector.
Speaking in the Dáil she outlined to Minister Darragh O’Brien the scale of the crisis for smaller independent cafés, restaurants and pubs that serve food.
“Every week more and more of them are closing their doors permanently, they are being hit by a wave of extra costs including an increase in the VAT rate, wage inflation, increasing supplier costs and the fact that their tax has been warehoused.
“We also have the added and increasing pressure in many towns, for example, places like Bundoran and Rosses Point where hotel accommodation is being used to host refugees, where downstream tourism and retail businesses are suffering even more.
“This is because of a lack of tourists who would, under normal circumstances, be staying at these hotels and spending money locally,” Ms Harkin said.
She told the Minister that a suite of measures needs to be put in place to address this.
“I think you need to consider a reinstatement of the 9% VAT rate, a much longer timeline to pay the warehoused tax and a tailored support package for this sector.
Minister O’Brien outlined a number of actions taken by the Government including €257m in an increased cost-of-business-grant to be paid out before the end of June, a 50% business rates grant and a commitment to looking again at the arrangements around the warehoused tax.
Commenting after her Dáil intervention, Ms Harkin said that while the measures outlined by the Minister are welcome, they are inadequate.
“The Government needs to appreciate the urgency of the situation where small businesses, especially independently run businesses are closing, and jobs and services are being lost around the country,” the Deputy concluded.