Tax Reliefs
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-25
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

The Deputy would not be doing his job if he was not scrutinising the decisions we make; that is his job. I believe it is a good use of taxpayers' money because the cost of this needs to be seen alongside the amount of income tax and other taxes these businesses and their employees are going to create. When I go back to my community and constituency and go into the local café, I know they will feel some sense of relief that some Bill is coming down the line. What annoyed me a lot about the 9% VAT rate in the recent period, though not nearly as much as it annoyed people in the hospitality sector, was this constant annual anxiety of whether the Government would roll it over for another year. At least, we are providing certainty now for a landscape. I believe this is the appropriate rate at which VAT should be levied in these sectors. There is much talk about the hospitality sector. Hairdressing probably does not get mentioned as much, but it is also an important cost base. There are lots of people working in these sectors, including part time, and there will be lots of young people getting summer jobs working in them as well. The hospitality sector, by which I do not mean hairdressers, is disproportionately represented in rural communities and the CSO data shows that those are overwhelmingly SMEs. The Deputy and I have a difference of view, although there may not be any differences between us about where we want to get to. That is my position.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-25