Restaurateurs fear pension scheme
AN award-winning chef and the Restaurants Association of Ireland have warned that a new pension scheme coming later this year will ‘wipe out’ struggling businesses.
The new scheme, in which employees without a pension are automatically enrolled into a pension plan funded by them, their employer and the Government, comes amid an ‘avalanche’ of rising costs in the hospitality sector.
The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) has said that, as of early February, 320 businesses had shut their doors over the previous six months.
JP McMahon, culinary director of the EatGalway Restaurant Group, which includes Aniar, Cava, Bodega and Tartare, said he was ‘particularly concerned’ about the impact of the new scheme on small and medium businesses, adding on social media: ‘We are being wiped out. On top of wage increases, energy increases, and food increases there is very little room left to make an already small margin. If the restaurant industry was the banking industry, the Government would be rushing to save it. Why is the independent restaurant, cafe, and pub industry in Ireland being allowed to die?’
Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the RAI, said: ‘If the planned introduction of pension auto-enrolment in the second half of this year goes ahead, it will add to costs and force many more food-led hospitality businesses already facing razor-tight margins to close.’ A spokesman for the Department of Social Protection said that auto enrolment will be a ‘transformative scheme – ensuring that employees are supported in building up savings for their retirement’.
They added: ‘There is no plan to introduce exemptions at present for employers.’