€200 voucher for all would boost hotel trade, says SF
SINN Féin wants to give every adult and child a voucher worth up to €200 to stimulate the tourism and hospitality sectors, under a €1billion scheme.
Every adult would be given a €200 voucher and every child €100 to spend in pubs, restaurants and hotels. However, leading economist Jim Power has blasted the scheme as a waste of ‘scarce resources’ and a ‘populist’ proposition.
Up to half of all restaurants face closure unless the Government intervenes with an ‘emergency aid’ package, the Restaurant Association of Ireland has warned.
Staycationing will ‘not be an option’ if restaurants, hotels and B&B are not supported by the Government, the RAI said.
Sinn Féin’s spokesman on tourism, Darren O’Rourke, launched the proposal which would be given to everyone regardless of how much they are paid. ‘Our plan would see each adult receive a voucher worth €200 to be used in domestic businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors, while every child would be entitled to a voucher worth €100,’ he said. ‘This would be non-means tested and available to every resident in the State. ‘That means it will assist those unable to afford a break, but also encourage those who can, to spend their vouchers, plus more, in our local economies.’
The money to pay for the vouchers would be generated through borrowing, finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said. ‘It will be paid through the Exchequer,’ he said. ‘As we are paying for support schemes and other types of stimulus that will be required in different sectors will be drawn on the borrowing from the National Treasury Management Agency and the facilities that we have at this point in time. The reason you stimulate a sector is to actually grow the sector to take people out of unemployment. You can see from the latest statistics, we still have a very large number of people on the pandemic unemployment scheme in the food and accommodation sector – nearly 120,000.
However, economist Mr Power, criticised the idea. He said: ‘It’s a massive amount of money and the notion that you can spend out to the end of 2021, I think, is mad. If everyone is spending money, spend it this year not next year. In the context of the hospitality sector, having a gift voucher scheme like that does not make any sense.’