Two top restaurants closed: ‘Knock after knock, there is only so much we can take’
Government urged to lower VAT back to 9%
TWO popular restaurants along the Wild Atlantic Way have shut up shop, blaming the financial climate, scarcity of staff and ‘fighting’ the Government.
The closure of the award-winning Eithna’s By The Sea restaurant in Sligo, after over 30 years in business, and of the popular Sea Hare Café in Clifden, Co. Galway, have increased calls for the VAT rate to be cut.
Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, asked: ‘How many more food-led businesses have to close, before the Government reduces the VAT to 9% and makes our industry viable?’
Eithna O’Sullivan announced the closure of her foodie hotspot in Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo this week.
It had previously won a Georgina Campbell award for being the best seafood restaurant in Ireland.
She said: ‘After much consideration over the last few months I have finally decided to permanently close the doors of Eithna’s By the Sea, bringing to an end over three decades of my passion and love of running what became an iconic seafood restaurant on the Wild Atlantic Way.’
Explaining her decision, she said running a small business in the current climate had ‘become very challenging’. And that she had also experienced difficulties in sourcing seasonal staff.
In a post on the restaurant’s website, she thanked ‘the hard-working teams who have come and gone over the many seasons, all the local suppliers, trades people who came at all hours, the local artists whose work both outside and inside helped to create the atmosphere, website and flower arrangements,
‘Fighting government is just too much now’
and the many friends who stepped in in various ways in hours of need’.
She concluded: ‘Memories have been made, it’s time for a younger generation to take the helm.’
Meanwhile, The Sea Hare café has announced it too has reached the end of the road.
In a post on social media, owners Sinéad Foyle and Philippa Duff said: ‘That’s a wrap. Like the rest of our industry, we have found it impossible – knock after knock, there is only so much we can take.
‘We are in hospitality, so we are hospitable, kind, hardworking, fair, generous, etc. Fighting government is just too much now. Thanks to you all.’
The café started as a pop-up in Cleggan before moving to Clifden. It was highly commended in the Food and Wine Restaurant of the Year awards and was named best café in Connacht in the Irish Restaurant Awards. At the start of the month the café lost its premises.
The owners wrote at the time: ‘It is with great sadness and regret we have to inform you that our wonderful foodie paradise at The Sea Hare is no more.
‘Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Sea Hare is now homeless.
‘Having survived Covid, it was with great excitement last year and high hopes for the future, we set about transforming a new space into our dream. Unfortunately, it was not to be.’
They said they were trying to find a new home for the business, but their search now appears to be at an end.
Anthony Gray, RAI council member and owner of the Eala Bhán and Hooked restaurants in Sligo, recently called on the Government to reinstate the 9% VAT rate for food-led businesses, to avoid further closures and associated job losses. He said: ‘There are restaurants closing the length and breadth of the country, and youth unemployment is on the rise. It is very, very important that the Government take heed of this, and offer some sort of rescue package for the hospitality industry, before it is too late.’
The VAT rate for the tourism and hospitality sector rose from 9% to 13.5% at the start of last September, following a cut which was imposed during the Covid crisis.
At the start of this month, Finance Minister Michael McGrath ruled out any changes to VAT taxation rates in 2024.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had hinted that calls for a split VAT rate, dividing hotels from restaurants, was ‘technically possible and warrants consideration’.
However, Minister McGrath said this would not be before 2025 at best, and that the Revenue Commissioners had raised concerns about the concept.