The Government should be scratching its collective head wondering how a string of high-profile restaurant closures three years ago led to a VAT cut the public doesn’t support and a perceived windfall for fast food chains.
If they aren’t they soon will be. The ESRI predicts that the Budget passed last week will leave households 2 per cent worse off this year assuming wage growth is as predicted. The €681 million full-year costs committed to cutting VAT on hospitality would have gone a long way to diluting the political impact of that bad news. A once-off energy credit of €250 – costing roughly €400 million – would not have gone amiss in January,
The Coalition cannot claim the high ground by arguing that such one-off payments are fiscally imprudent when they have been bounced into giving special treatment for a sect
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