9% VAT rate ‘a major success’, says RAI
By creating 31,584 jobs and boosting Ireland's tourism, the Restaurants Association of Ireland has praised the 9% VAT rate and is urging the government to continue this measure
Print26 August 2014
The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) has published a report, entitled ‘9% VAT – Food, Tourism & Jobs – Rebuilding Ireland’s Economy’, highlighting the positive impact of the 9% VAT rate introduced in July 2011.
Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, described the 9% VAT rate as “a major success. 31,584 new jobs have been created across the country, with 21,633 of these being direct jobs in the food and accommodation sector.”
The research demonstrates the considerable social welfare savings made by the exchequer using the model that “for every 10,000 people off the live register, and back in employment, it results in a net gain to the exchequer of some €200 million”.
Tourism has also increased every year since the new VAT rate was introduced, with overall visits to Ireland rising by 17.82% since July 2011. There is further good news for Ireland’s tourism sector regarding Ireland’s Value for Money (VFM) rating as the number of visitors rating Ireland ‘good’ or ‘very good’ VFM has increased from 28% to 40% from 2009 to 2012 and the number of visitors rating Ireland ‘very poor’ or ‘poor’ for VFM has fallen sharply from 40% in 2009 to 16% in 2012.
Since the introduction of the lower VAT, there has been strong growth in the number of overseas visits to Ireland. According to the CSO figures overseas visits to Ireland grew by 10.3% overall in the period from January to June 2014 when compared to the corresponding period of 2013.
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