A Macroom hotelier says he’s worried about whether customers and businesses will be able to ‘take’ the price increases associated with the return of the thirteen and a half per cent VAT Rate.
Manager of The Castle Hotel Macroom, Rory Buckley, was speaking following the release of a report by the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation.
The report says 24,000 jobs could be lost this year if the VAT rate is increased for the hospitality sector.
The group have said that significant challenges remain such as the cost of energy and fears of a global recession following the pandemic.
Speaking to RedFM News, Rory Buckley says the past three years have been very difficult for hospitality:
"We've had Covid, we've had the staffing crisis, we've had the energy crisis as well. You know, our energy bills, we've seen them go up 200% to 300%. Like, we employee around 100 people here in Macroom between full-timers, part-timers, students... And definitely that VAT rate would have an impact on it. We'd either have to pass that price to the consumer, which we don't like doing, you know, we've had a lot of that already. Recently Heineken put up their prices, Diageo put up their prices - we've had to pass that on. The VAT rate going up would mean passing it on again and, look, we don't want to so it".
