At a protest MC-ed by Ivan Yates, restaurateurs, pub owners, childcare and beauty salon bosses were among those who marched to Leinster House from the Pepper Canister Church yesterday on a mission.
Those who took to the podium spoke of the death of family businesses and rural Ireland and their potential replacement with high street brands with globalist ambitions. One man warned that the only place you might end up finding an Irish pub is the Costa del Sol.
“No Vat, no vote”, “Hanging the hospitality industry out to dry”, “Don’t let the high street die” and “Wake up government before it’s too late’ read some of the banners held by protesters.
Among the first to speak was Paul Lenehan, a Kildare restaurateur and president of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, who was determined to make Buswells’ political clientele pay attention.
Enterprise Minister Peter Burke was singled out as an exception after backing them on their Vat demands.
“The upcoming general election will be pivotal to the future of our industry,” he said.
“The Government is well aware that 270,000 people employed in hospitality and tourism along with the hundreds and thousands more working in SMEs in our sectors, will all walk into voting booths across the country, possibly next month or the month after.
“If they want our support, something has to change and something major.”
He called on Taoiseach Simon Harris and Finance Minister Jack Chambers to sit down with representative associations to hammer out “meaningful” policies to stabilise the cost of running small businesses.
The crowd clapped as he read out each item on their wish list. It included demands for a reduction in Vat and excise duty, a review of the commercial rates system, recognition for the key role played by restaurants and pubs in Ireland’s tourism offering, and a review of extra costs the Government is adding now and in the coming years.
If they did not co-operate, he said businesses, jobs, livelihoods and the heart and soul of our communities will be lost.
Hundreds of restaurants, pubs and small hospitality businesses have already closed, he said, and unfortunately many more will follow. It’s not because of a lack of support from consumers, or effort on their part, he said. It’s because the cost of doing business has spiralled out of control and the Government has refused to take meaningful action to address this.
Many speakers insisted that they do not want handouts, but the reinstatement of a 9pc Vat rate was one of their chief demands.
Mr Yates said he knew they would rather be anywhere else than in Dublin, away from their businesses, which was costing them money.
The broadcaster told them they would hear of the horror of family businesses’ fears, from the owners of nursing homes, childcare services and hairdressers to small retailers. It is not just the Vat rate, the former politician said, that is an issue, but a 36pc increase in payroll taxes.
Increases in the minimum wage, a new living wage, paid statutory sick leave, and a new pension auto-enrolment scheme next September were among the policies described as having arrived virtually all at once, while businesses were already grappling with soaring energy costs and inflationary pressure.
Anita Murray, who owns a spa and salon in Dundrum and was in the crowd representing Habic (Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation Ireland) and the Irish Spa Association, said the beauty and well-being sector has been brutalised over the past two to three years.
“We’re seeing businesses closing, left right and centre and it’s just no longer sustainable,” she said.
“There’s the economic impact and also the importance of our industry in terms of well-being and what we offer our communities. We really need the Government to start listening to us.”
She said there had been a 17pc increase in the minimum wage since 2013, PRSI and Vat increases.
“It’s just one thing after another,” she said. “It’s no longer sustainable.”
Alan Murphy, owner of the Titanic Bar and Grill in Cobh, Co Cork, said the Government is “not listening at all to us” and has the perception that hospitality businesses have a big pot of gold.
We don’t, he said, adding that they are at their wits’ end while costs have gone through the roof.
Summertime profits are not tiding them over for the difficult winter months, he said. Losses are getting bigger, he added. He said a €4,000 “power up” grant introduced in the Budget will not “wash its face with us”.
“We’re suffering,” he said. “We’re working our asses off in hospitality. We’re working unsociable hours, weekends, when everybody else is out enjoying their lives… We’re really getting shafted.”