Visitor Levy on Paid Overnight Accommodation: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach

He pays it too, actually.
Businesses in major cities and other urban spots that have tourism footfall are already paying substantial rates. They are paying for services that they should already be receiving.
I am going to go back to the top line again, which is regional development and delivering the infrastructure that we need. I would love a further discussion on this to potentially look at a development fee being introduced in our major airports. I had this conversation with my colleagues, especially Senator Páraic Brady from Longford. We have thrashed this out. Potentially, the metro north could be paid for in a very short period of time with the introduction of a development fee like this, and because that is already under way in Knock Airport, we should not have to legislate as much for it to be introduced in other areas.
We are not letting the local authorities off the hook in terms of the moneys they are taking in in rates, but we are empowering the potential development of infrastructure that we all know is much needed.
I support the motion and its wording. Obviously, we will have to thrash out the legislative side a little bit more, but I compliment the Senator and her colleagues on bringing this forward.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24