Dublin restaurant owner says Budget is ‘anti-small business’

A Dublin restaurant owner has said Budget 2025 is “anti-small business” and that progress his business made in the past year will be “wiped away” without further help.

Will Monaghan, owner of One Society on the corner of Parnell Street/Gardiner Street, said that the Dublin riots were “the final nail in the coffin” for his business, coupled with high electricity bills and an increased VAT rate.

Restaurant and cafe owners have warned of a crisis in the sector after the stilted years during the pandemic, resulting in warehoused debt that needs to be repaid, a huge hike in energy bills, a VAT rate increase from 9% to 13.5%, and as customers habits change due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Mr Monaghan’s One Society, which has been in operation for six years in November, offers brunch during the day and operates as an Italian tapas and wine bar at night.

While the business had been surviving, the Dublin riots broke out a stone’s throw away in November, which impacted on footfall in the area and bookings during the crucial Christmas season.

He has recently secured investment to open a second premises called Hidden in the more busy Smithfield area to help the Parnell Street premises.

Mr Monaghan said there was “disappointment but not disbelief” at supports for businesses in Budget 2025.

He said he knew that the VAT rate would remain at 13.5% weeks ago but he hoped something else “substantial and meaningful” for the hospitality sector would be announced instead.

He added that last year’s figures showed they made a 0.5% profit after making a 50,000 euro loss the previous year, but that those gains would be “wiped away and more without anything of help”.

He said that an Energy Subsidy Scheme for businesses giving up to 4,000 euros to an estimated 39,000 firms was not “even worth talking about” and did not clarify who would be eligible for it.

He said that the wage increases from January, while understandable, would put further pressure on costs.

“The minimum wage has to go up, I understand that, I pay most people over minimum wage when I can. If the new business is performing I have no problem paying you more if the funds are there.

“They’ve increased the minimum wage, it’s not much, but I’m glad it’s not more from a business perspective. It is going to increase our costs by 15,000 euro a year for One Society.”

He called on the Government to consider introducing a separate VAT rate for hospitality and hotels, arguing that he cannot increase a pizza to 30 euros each on a match day, while hotels can.

“It was anti-small business and unfortunately that’s the only way I can describe it,” he said.

“What does community have to look forward to if their beloved business, their beloved restaurant, cafe, bar, if they start going out of business?

“It was a budget for an election, a budget for the individual. They’re just about counting votes and getting the vote, and that’s all that it is for.

“Look, there are absolutely winners, don’t get me wrong, people are going to benefit from it. They’ll spin it and say that they’re putting money in people’s pockets and cost of living prices won’t be as much, and therefore there will be more to spend.

“The reality is those who need the money desperately won’t be getting enough money to trigger them to circulate it out (into the economy).”