Business Supports Dail Éireann — 2025-09-25 ============================================================ John Clendennen (FG), Offaly When it comes to protecting jobs, I ask the Minister to strongly consider, along with his Cabinet colleagues, introducing the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector in the upcoming budget. The Minister spoke about the kitchen tables to boardroom tables where decisions were made. Small businesses need help. A VAT rate of 9% is an important stimulus in that regard. To look at the figures, there are 20,000 companies with 200,000 employees. Of those companies, 76% have fewer than ten employees and another 20% have fewer than 50. This will target over 95% of businesses in every town and village, ensuring economic and social well-being and community benefit, whether through the coffee shop, restaurant or other small businesses. I urge the Minister and his colleagues to ensure the 9% VAT rate is part of budget 2026. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-09-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-09-25