Following my column on the restored nine per cent Vat rate, hospitality operators from across the country explained what life now looks like on the ground. Their stories suggest the tax break is no longer about cheaper meals but about keeping viable businesses alive.
Fifteen years ago, the lower Vat rate for the hospitality sector was supposed to make meals cheaper and create jobs. Today, it is presented as a lifeline for businesses. That shift matters.
Non compliance with a Brexit carve-out saw an Irish company that imports second-hand mobile phones hit with a multi-million-euro Vat liability in a case that is now going to the High Court.
The tax authority is reviewing the department's Vat and PAYE liabilities from 2021 to 2024 after raising issues during audits. A Vat liability for 2022 was paid but an overall settlement figure is not yet landed on.
The business behind the GoBus intercity service from Galway to Dublin city and the airport challenged the Revenue's refusal to recognise its right to a Vat rebate as a tourist operator.
As more multinationals choose Ireland to centralise European Vat payments, discrepancies held up the release of corresponding statistics for months.
Hopfully Brewing Co and the company behind the Urban 8 restaurant have both appointed process advisors under the Small Companies Administrative Rescue Process.
A sane and fiscally sustainable economic policy is a bulwark for the small business sector in Ireland, but a bespoke policy, made-to-measure for any faltering sector, is delusional.
The hospitality sector says the issue is about margin, not customers. But with the government's decision not to reduce the Vat rate for the besieged sector, what other options are on the menu?
Disappointed by Budget 2025, hundreds in the hospitality industry protested in Dublin this Tuesday to make their voices heard ahead of the expected election. They say they're at breaking point.
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