Irish Hotels Federation President Michael Magner has expressed disappointment with the government’s business support measures, stating they fall short of addressing the challenges faced by small and medium-sized regional hotels.
Mr Magner highlighted that the measures announced do not provide meaningful assistance to the sector, particularly for hotels heavily dependent on food services and struggling with cost increases and tight margins.
The realignment of PRSI rates was cited as only offsetting a small portion of the cost increases, with Mr Magner calling for a fundamental restructuring of employers’ PRSI and a targeted rebate.
Many businesses, including hotels, were unable to benefit from the local authority rates grant scheme due to commercial rates exceeding €30,000, leading to exclusion of small hotels that should be part of the support.
Mr Magner emphasised the detrimental impact of last September’s VAT increase on food-related services in regional Ireland, calling for a review and a reduction of the VAT rate to 9pc for food-related services in the industry.
While welcoming the increased government funding for energy efficiency grants, Magner stressed the need for more targeted supports to help tourism and hospitality businesses achieve sustainability and carbon reduction goals.
