{"id":566249,"date":"2026-07-03T02:52:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/566249\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T02:52:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:52:27","slug":"hospitality-wins-from-vat-rate-cut-but-no-benefit-for-consumers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/566249\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospitality wins from VAT rate cut but no benefit for consumers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the same day the VAT rate for food services and hairdressers was cut to 9 per cent by the Minister for Finance, Simon Harris<\/a>, Hospitality Ulster threw its weight behind a UK-wide campaign for the British rate to be slashed. <\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland lobby group has joined UKHospitality\u2019s #VATsTheProblem campaign (they might want to sharpen up their slogan) in calling on Downing Street to cut the VAT rate to 10 per cent from its current rate of 20 per cent. <\/p>\n

They are \u201curging businesses, employees, customers and the wider public to sign a national petition calling for a lower VAT rate that would help protect jobs, boost investment and support the long-term sustainability of the sector\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cNorthern Ireland\u2019s hospitality businesses are among the most resilient anywhere in the UK, but resilience alone is no longer enough. Operators are absorbing unprecedented increases in costs while competing against businesses in the Republic of Ireland, where hospitality VAT is set to be just 9 per cent,\u201d Colin O\u2019Neill, Hospitality Ulster\u2019s chief executive said. <\/b><\/p>\n

Having campaigned without success for a reduced rate specifically for Northern Ireland, Hospitality Ulster has now joined the UK-wide campaign. <\/p>\n

Will it fly with Andy Burnham<\/a>, the prime minister in waiting?<\/p>\n

Given the huge financial pressures on the UK treasury, and the need to massively boost defence spending, it seems unlikely. <\/p>\n

Interestingly, figures on insolvencies this week from PwC and Deloitte raise some questions about the need for a rate cut here, at a cost to the taxpayer of \u20ac681 million in a full year. Both firms recorded steep reductions in insolvencies in the hospitality sector in the first half of this year \u2013 Deloitte said there were 57, down from 66 insolvencies a year earlier and 77 in the same period of 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cDeloitte has previously noted that the VAT rate cut measure is unlikely to positively impact the hospitality sector, as it continues to face difficulty attracting and retaining staff, the high cost of labour and the price of energy,\u201d the Big Four accounting firm said. <\/p>\n

Of course, the one group that won\u2019t benefit from the Irish VAT rate cut (it is worth remembering that the rate has been 9 per cent for all bar three of the past 15 years) is the hard-pressed Irish consumer, with the reduction being used to bolster operating margins rather than reducing prices. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the same day the VAT rate for food services and hairdressers was cut to 9 per cent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,2355,18,19,17,44,24727],"class_list":["post-566249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cantillon","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-simon-harris","tag-vat"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116853784395160356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}